OSMA, Diocese of. - Diocese in the province of Soria in Old Castile (Spain). It has an area of 8,549 sq km with a population of 188,900 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 429 parishes, served by 315 diocesan priests and 80 religious; it has a seminary, 8 male religious communities and 20 female (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 304). The seat of the diocese is in the small town of Burgo de O.

The beginnings of the diocese are somewhat uncertain. One of its holders, John, attended the Council of Toledo in 597. Devastated during the Moorish occupation (8th-11th century), the diocese was re-established in 1088, and in 1103 St. Peter of O. took possession of it. In the middle of the 16th century the bishop Pedro Alvarez de Acosta erected, under the direction of the Italian artist Giovanni di Juni, the College of St. Catherine, which later became a University, and was suppressed by Charles III in the 18th century.

The diocese, formerly a suffragan of Toledo and from 1851 of Burgos, comprises part of the provinces of Burgos and Soria and a small strip of that of Segovia. The Cathedral, of the 13th century, has its high altar by Giovanni di Juni (1554). The patron of the diocese is St. Peter of O.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: J. Corvalan, Descripción histórica del obispado de O., Madrid 1788; Eubel, I, p. 382; II, p. 231; III, p. 283; IV, p. 268.

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina

@incollection{ec9_osma_diocesi_di, author = {Ortiz, de Urbina Ignazio}, title = {Osma, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {409}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/osma-diocesi-di} }

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Osma, Diocese of

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