SAN SEBASTIANO, DIOCESI di. – City and diocese of Spain. It has an area of 1,885 sq. km and a population of 374,040 inhabitants, of whom 373,954
are Catholics, distributed among 158 parishes served by 559 diocesan and 338 religious priests; it has two seminaries, 62 male and 167 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 360).
Called “Donostia” in the Basque language, it is a city on the Bay of Biscay in the extreme north-west 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, without solid foundation, considered it to be of Roman origin; instead, the first reliable information dates from the 11th century, namely from the diploma of the king of Navarre Sancho III the Great of 1014, in which the parishes of S. Maria and S. Vincenzo are donated. More important is that of King Sancho VI the Wise, from the middle of the following century, concerning the “foro” or privileges of the city. In 1200 the latter, together with the entire territory of Guipuzcoa, passed under the crown of Castile.
It is known that S. S. and the surrounding region belonged in antiquity 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, Viscaglia and Guipuzcoa, whose capitals are Victoria, Bilbao and S. S.; but the inauguration of the bishopric was delayed until 28 April 1862. Since, however, the populations of the two latter 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, assigning s. Ignazio di Loyola as its patron, establishing its see at S. S., and raising to cathedral dignity the church dedicated to Gesù Pastor Bueno (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 534–39). Of this church, the foundation stone was laid in 1881, but it was consecrated only in 1897 and completed in 1899. Other churches are: the church of S. Maria, rebuilt in 1764; it has three naves and an apse as wide as the church itself (35 m by 52 m in length). The oldest church is that of S. Vincente, begun in 1507 and transformed in 1750; it has three very high naves. The convent of S. Telmo was founded in 1534 by Alonso de Idiaquez; on the portal is the statue of the Dominican s. Pietro Gonzalez Telmo; the cloister houses the Library, the Museum of painting, archaeology and Basque ethnography. The Palazzo del Mar is occupied by the Oceanographic Museum.
The diocese is suffragan to Burgos. The three sanctuaries should be mentioned: Our Lady of Coro, patroness of the city; the Virgin of Aranzazu, patroness of the province; and at Aspeitia, 54 km from S. S., the sanctuary of S. Ignazio di Loyola (v. LOYOLA, SANTUARIO di).
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti