ORENSE, DIOCESI di. - City and diocese, capital of the province of the same name in north-western Spain.
It has an area of 6,250 sq. km., almost identical with that of the civil province, with a population of 578,420 inhabitants, of whom 578,377 are Catholics, distributed among 602 parishes, served by 516 diocesan priests and 36 regular clergy; it has two seminaries, 9 male religious communities and 24 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 302).
It was first a suffragan of Braga and then of Santiago di Compostella. The first known bishop of O. is Witimiro, present at the Synod of Braga in 561. Occupied by the Arabs (732) and reconquered by Alfonso III (ca. 877), the diocese revived, only to be suppressed ca. 977 and incorporated into Lugo, because of the Norman invasions. It was re-established on 13 Jan. 1071. Among the distinguished bishops of O. should be noted St. Ansurio in the 10th century and Giovanni di Torquemada in the 15th century. The patron of the diocese is St. Martino. The Cathedral, begun in the 12th century and completed in modern times, is a heterogeneous structure in which every century has left its imprint.
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina