Diocese of San Sebastián
City and diocese of Spain. It has an area of 1,885 km², with a population of 374,040 inhabitants, of whom 373,954 are Catholic, distributed in 158 parishes served by 559 diocesan priests and 338 religious; 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, without solid foundation, believed it to be of Roman origin; instead, the first certain news dates to the 11th century, namely in the charter of King Sancho III the Great of Navarre of 1014, where the parishes of St. Mary and St. Vincent are donated. More important is that of King Sancho VI the Wise in the middle of the following century regarding the “fuero” or privileges of the city. This city passed in 1200, along with the entire Guipuzcoan territory, under the crown of Castile.
It is well known that San Sebastián and the nearby 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 Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastián; but the inauguration of the bishopric was delayed until 28 April 1862. However, as the population of the last two cities grew extraordinarily, Pope Pius XII with 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, establishing its see in San Sebastián and elevating to the dignity of cathedral the church dedicated to *Jesús Pastor Bueno* (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 534-39). Of this church, the first stone was laid in 1881, but it was consecrated only in 1897 and completed in 1899. Other churches include: the church of St. Mary, rebuilt in 1764; it has three naves with an apse as wide as the church itself (35 by 52 meters 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 houses the Library, the Museum of painting, archaeology and Basque ethnography. The Maritime Palace houses the Oceanographic Museum.
The diocese is a suffragan of Burgos. Three sanctuaries are to be noted: Our Lady of the Choir, patroness of the city; the Virgin of Aranzazu, patroness of the province; at Azpeitia, 54 km from San Sebastián, the sanctuary of St. Ignatius of Loyola (v. LOYOLA, Sanctuary of).
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti