San Sebastián, Diocese of

SAN SEBASTIÁN, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese of Spain. It has an area of 1,885 sq km with a population of 374,040 inhabitants, of whom 373,954 are Catholics, distributed in 158 parishes served by 559 diocesan priests and 338 regulars; it has two seminaries, 62 male religious communities and 167 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 360).

Called "Donostia" in the Basque language, a city on the Bay of Biscay in the extreme northwest of the Iberian peninsula, capital of the civil province of Guipuzcoa, at the mouth of the Urumca river and between the bays of Zurriola and La Concha. Some believed it, without solid foundation, to be of Roman origin; instead the first reliable notice of it is from the 11th century, that is, in the diploma of Sancho III the Great, king of Navarre, of 1014, where the donation of the parishes of St. Mary and St. Vincent is made. More important is that of King Sancho VI the Wise from the middle of the following century concerning the "fuero" or the privileges of the city. This passed in 1200, together with the whole Guipuzcoan territory, under the crown of Castile.

It is known that S. S. and the neighboring region formerly belonged to the diocese of Calahorra and remained united to it until the Concordat of 1851, in which the new episcopal see of Victoria was recognized, having jurisdiction over all three Basque provinces: Alava, Biscay and Guipuzcoa, whose capitals are Victoria, Bilbao and S. S.; but the inauguration of the bishopric was delayed until 28 April 1862. However, since the population of the last two cities had grown extraordinarily, Pope Pius XII, by the apostolic constitution Quo commodius of 2 November 1949, detached from the diocese of Victoria the territory of the civil province of Guipuzcoa comprising 150 parishes, giving it St. Ignatius of Loyola as patron, fixing its see in S. S. and elevating to the dignity of cathedral the church dedicated to Jesus the Good Shepherd (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 534-39). Of that church, the first stone was laid in 1881, but only in 1897 was it consecrated, and it was completed in 1899. Other churches are: the church of St. Mary, rebuilt in 1764; it has three naves with an apse as wide as the church itself (35 m by 52 in length). The oldest church is that of St. Vincent, begun in 1507 and transformed in 1750; it has three very high naves. The convent of St. Telmo was founded in 1534 by Alonso de Idiaquez; on the portal is the statue of the Dominican St. Peter Gonzalez Telmo; the cloister contains the Library, the Museum of painting, archaeology and Basque ethnography. The Palace of the Sea is occupied by the oceanographic Museum.

The diocese is a suffragan of Burgos. Three sanctuaries are to be remembered: Our Lady of the Choir, patroness of the city; the Virgin of Aranzazu, patroness of the province; at Aspeitia, 54 km from S. S., the sanctuary of St. Ignatius of Loyola (v. LOYOLA, SANTUARIO di).

Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti