Saragossa (Zaragoza), Archdiocese of

SARAGOZZA (ZARAGOZA), ARCHDIOCESE of - Metropolitan city and archdiocese of Aragon (Spain), situated in the civil province of the same name and for the most part in that of Teruel. It has a parish in Navarre, while the parish of St. Engratia, in the city of S. itself, belongs to the diocese of Huesca. The city of S. was described by Isidore of Seville as «loci amoenitate, deliciis prestantior civitatibus Hispaniae cunctis».

The area of the archdiocese is 20,409 sq. km. with a population of 570,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed in 371 parishes, served by 474 diocesan priests and 257 regulars. It has three seminaries: the Royal Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, founded in 1588 and entrusted to the Jesuits, who remained there until their expulsion under Charles III; the Pontifical Seminary of St. Valero, founded in 1788; and the minor seminary of Belchite. There are furthermore 22 male religious communities and 105 female (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 369).

The city on the right bank of the Ebro was inhabited by the Cantabri and was called Salduba or Salluvia; destroyed in 45 B.C., it was rebuilt by the Romans, who called it «Colonia Caesar Augusta». It was invaded in 409 by the Vandals; in 452 by the Suevi, ca. 466 by the Visigoths, ca. 714 by the Arabs, who called it Saraquetah, whence the present name. The Arabs made it the capital of one of the states that arose after the destruction of the caliphate of Cordoba. Contested by the kings of Aragon and those of Castile, it was conquered by Alfonso I of Aragon, called the Battler, on 19 Dec. 1118; it then flourished until it became the center of Aragonese political life, a primacy it lost with the formation of the Kingdom of Spain; it rose up in vain at the end of the 16th century; Philip II took from it a great part of its administrative constitutions of the 15th century, which had served as a model for other cities of the Kingdom of Aragon; having risen again to favor Charles of Austria, it was exhausted by Philip V. In the war against Napoleon nearly half of its citizens fell during two months of heroic siege, which conferred on the city the title of «siempre heroica».

Christianity in S. is attested from the middle of the 3rd century; St. Cyprian in 254 calls its bishop Felix «fidei cultor ac defensor veritatis» (PL 3, 1066 A; ed. G. Bayard, II, Paris 1925, ep. 67, 6, p. 231). At the beginning of the 4th century the bishop of S. appears at the Council of Elvira.

Among the bishops of S. prior to the Arab invasion are remembered Maximus (ca. 592-619), who was present at the Synods of Barcelona and Egara; he was succeeded by St. Braulio (v.), who attended the IV, V and VI Councils of Toledo; then Samuel Taio (v.), who attended the Synods of Toledo of the years 653, 655 and 656 and is the author of the Libri Sententiarum (PL 80, 727-990; Z. García Villada, Historia eclesiastica de España, II, 11, Madrid 1933, p. 90 ff.). During the Arab invasion the bishops Senior (ca. 850), Elna, who took refuge in 890 at Oviedo, and Paterno, who, sent to Cluny, later introduced its reform into the abbey of S. Juan de la Peña and at S. Salvador de Leyre, are known. After the reconquest, the first bishop was Pedro de Librana, confirmed by Callistus II. Among his successors is remembered Bernardo (1138-52), who established the canons in the two cathedrals of S. Salvador and of N. S. del Pilar. Yielding to the entreaties of King James II of Aragon, Pope John XXIII on 18 June 1318 elevated the diocese of S. to a metropolitan see, giving it as suffragans the sees of Calahorra, Tarazona, Pamplona, Huesca and Segorbe. With the Concordat of 1851 there were further modifications; today its suffragans are: Albarracin, Barbastro, Huesca, Jaca, Pamplona, Tarazona, Teruel, Tudela. The first archbishop of S. was P. Lopez de Luna; his successors were of the house of Aragon for about a century, namely John (1458), Alonso (1478-1520), John II (1520-30), Fernando (1539-75), formerly abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Veruela (Cottineau, II, coll. 3349-50). The archbishop García Fernández de Heredia was assassinated in 1411 by Antonio de Luna.

Among the archbishops elevated to the purple are noted Guilelmo Campfullas (1347-51), Manuel García Gil (1858-1881), who was one of the theologians at the Vatican Council, Fr. de Paula Benavides y Navarrete (1881-94) and Card. J. Soldevila y Romero, assassinated in 1923 (AAS, 15 [1923], p. 605).

Synods and Martyrs. - In 380, with the participation of 10 Spanish bishops and 2 from Gaul, the first Synod against Priscillianism was held; the second was held on 1 Nov. 592 by Bishop Magno, the third in 691 under Bishop Valda-redo; a fourth by Archbishop Andrea Santos (1578-85) for the application of the canons of the Council of Trent. To the clergy of S. belonged the deacon Vincent (v.), martyred in 304 at Sagunto, as Prudentius attests, who dedicated to him canto 4 of his Περιστεράνων. The same poet recalls the names of 18 martyrs of S., namely Ottato, Luperco,

Successo, Marziale, Urbano, Giulio, Quintiliano, Publio, Frontone, Felice, Ceciliano, Evoto, Primitivo, Apodemo, four named Saturnino and three confessors: Engratia, Caio and Cremenzio (ibid., vv. 145-64). The four named Saturnino are replaced by Eugenius of Toledo with Cassian, Gennaro, Matutino and Fausto (Carmen de Basilica sanctorum XVIII martyrum, IX, 15-20, in MGH, Auctores antiquus., XIV, p. 240), names that recur in the Mozarabic Sacramentary (M. Ferotin, Le liber mozarabicus Sacramentorum et les manuscrits mozarabiques, Paris 1912, p. 276). H. Delehaye observes that the names Fausto, Gennaro and Marziale correspond to the three martyrs of Cordoba (Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, p. 364). In 1250, at the time of Bishop A. de Peralto, the Jews crucified the little St. Dominguito del Val, whose relics are preserved in the chapel dedicated to him in the Cathedral.

Churches. - S. has two cathedrals: the "Seo," from Sedes, dedicated to the Most Holy Savior, and the sanctuary of "Nuestra Señora del Pilar," patroness of all Spain. Clement X, by a bull dated 11 Feb. 1675, established the union of the two cathedrals: the Chapter serves in turn in the two, half in one, half in the other, alternating each year. Pope Pius XI, on 17 May 1922, granted the use of the mitre to the canons only on the feast of Our Lady of the Pilar (12 Oct.), on condition that the pontifical Mass be celebrated by the Ordinary "pro tempore." The "Seo" had its original building destroyed by the invading Arabs. Hanoa ben Abdala built there the principal mosque, which was transformed into a cathedral from the time of the reconquest in 1118; the works, begun in 1119, continued in the following centuries. Archbishop Alonso de Aragona in 1490 raised the two side aisles to the height of the central one and added two more, enlarging the building to five naves, divided by four rows of pillars with figured capitals; the choir has wooden stalls from the beginning of the 15th century and the "transcoro" erected by Tudelila in 1538 with statues of the martyrs Lawrence and Vincent and reliefs with scenes from their lives. In the center, beneath a canopy with a gilded dome, is the statue of the risen Savior. In the "Capilla mayor," on the altar, is a Gothic alabaster retable begun in 1431 by Pere Iohan and finished in 1477 by Hans with scenes from the life of Jesus Christ and of saints (reproduced above in plate 43); there is also the Gothic tomb of Archbishop Lopez Fernández de Luna (1382). In the chapel of St. Bernard is the monument of Archbishop Fernando of Aragon. On the outside, on the northwest side, is a Greco-Roman façade after a design by Contini (1685), flanked by an octagonal tower. On the northeast side the exterior decoration is of brick in Moorish style; to the east is a Renaissance portal. The second cathedral of S. is "Nuestra Señora del Pilar" or the "Virgen del Pilar," which originated from a small chapel consecrated to the wonder-working image of the Blessed Virgin who is said to have appeared to the apostle St. James the Greater. The present building (130 x 65 m.) was built in 1681 after a design by the architect Herrera; it has three naves divided by twelve pillars, with ten domes and four corner towers. To the east is the "capilla de Nuestra Señora del Pilar," oval in shape and imitating the Holy House of Loreto; it is surmounted by a dome decorated by A. Velazquez and gleams with bronzes, silver and precious marbles. Inside there are three altars: the one on the right has above a pillar (pilar) the small wonder-working alabaster image, placed on a silver base; the central altar has the Virgin enthroned; on the left altar is a bas-relief representing St. James with his disciples. In the crypt are the tombs of many archbishops. To the west of the chapel is the new Cathedral, which has on the high altar a Gothic retable with scenes from the life of the Virgin by D. Forment (1505-15). In the north nave the small domes were frescoed by Goya and Bayeu (1781-82). Other churches of S. are: that of the Madalena founded in 1148, modified in the 13th century; that of St. Paul founded in 1259 where the ancient parish of St. Blaise was; it has to the north a carved portal in Gothic style and to the south one from the 18th century; it has a great octagonal tower; the interior has three naves; the church of St. Cajetan with a façade by Villanuova (1678); the church of St. Philip is from 1691, it contains an Ecce Homo by Picard and polychrome wooden statues of the Apostles by Ramirez (17th century); the church of St. Augustine and those of St. Nicholas of Bari and of St. Michael of the Navarrese with a nave decorated with mosaics; the church of St. Roch from the 18th century presents two brick towers; the church of St. John of the Panetes with a leaning bell tower is transformed inside into a lapidary museum; the church of Our Lady of the Portillo; the church of St. Engratia was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century: in the crypt with five naves are the relics of the martyrs of S. and Christian sarcophagi (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, I, pl. 158, 1; II, pl. 229, 8 and figs. 146-47).

The University was founded by Pope Sixtus IV in 1474. It received privileges from King Charles I, from Popes Julius III and Paul IV. The building was erected in 1593 through the munificence of P. Cerbuna, but was damaged by the French in 1809, when the Library was also destroyed, later reorganized. S. furthermore has a provincial Archaeological Museum, a Museum of Paintings, a Commercial Museum of Aragon (1910) and the ethnographic section (Casa Ansoana). - See plate CXXIII.

Enrico Josi