PALENCIA, DIOCESI di. — Diocese of Castile, suffragan of the metropolitan see of Burgos; it is situated in the province of the same name, except for some parishes belonging to the dioceses of Santander and Valladolid. Territorial extent: 7711 sq. km.; inhabitants: 260,000, all Catholics; parishes: 350; secular priests: 430; religious priests: 19.
This diocese is thought to have been founded in the 3rd century, but the first reliable information dates from the 6th century. After its capital and other nearby cities were destroyed by the Moors in 750, part of its territory was incorporated by King Alfonso III in 905 into the diocese of Oviedo, and another part subsequently into that of Burgos; in the same 11th century, however, P. reappears once more as a very extensive diocese, namely, as the foundation document states, “from the River Cea to its confluence with the Duero, from the source of the River Pisuerga to the castle of Peñafiel, including this district and that of Portillo and the 7 churches as far as the Duero.” Upon the erection of the diocese of Valladolid in 1595, a substantial part of the territory of P. was detached to form the new bishopric. Since 1181, by privilege of King Alfonso VIII, the bishop of P. had exercised civil jurisdiction over certain villages in the valley of Pernia; these formed the county of Pernia, a title granted in the 15th century for the part played by the bishop in the conquest of Antequera. For this reason, to the present day, the prelates are called counts of Pernia. The patron of the diocese is s. Antolin (feast: 2 Sept.), and its proper saints are: s. Francesco di Capillas (16 Jan.), s. Ildefonso, bishop (23 Jan.), s. Giuliano, bishop (26 Jan.), s. Pedro Gonzales Telmo (14 Apr.), s. Toribio (16 Apr.), s. Pietro de Dueñas (19 May), s. Mancio, bishop (21 May), s. Zoilo (27 June), s. Pietro Oxomense (2 Aug.), s. Francesco di Gesù martire (3 Sept.). The cathedral church, whose foundation stone was blessed by Cardinal Guglielmo di S. Sabina, papal legate a latere of Pope Giovanni XXII, was begun in 1321 under Bishop Giovanni II and completed in 1516. It belongs to a very pure Gothic style, and has three naves and a crypt, partly dating from the 7th century and partly from the 10th. The cloister dates from the 15th century. The Treasury of this church and its Archive are exceptionally rich. The major seminary dates from 1584; the minor seminary, in Carrion de los Conde, from 1896.
Bun.: P. Fernandez del Pulgar, Historia secular celesiistica de la ciudad de P., Madrid 1679-80; E. Florez, España sagrada, VIII, Madrid 1860, pp. 1-33; Anuario celesiistico, Barcelona 1927, p. 313; 1928, p. 363. Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti