Diocese of Urgel

The diocese of Urgel (in Latin: Dioecesis Urgellen(sis) and in Catalan: Bisbat d&# 39;Urgell)) is a Latin ecclesiastical circumscription of the Catholic Church in Spain and Andorra, suffragan of the archdiocese of Tarragona. The diocese has Archbishop Joan Enric Vives i Sicília in his personal capacity as its ordinary since May 12, 2003.

Territory and organization

The diocese has 7,630 km² and extends its jurisdiction over the Latin rite Catholic faithful residing in part of the provinces of Lérida and Gerona in Catalonia, Spain, and the entire principality of Andorra.

The headquarters of the diocese is located in the city of Seo de Urgel, where the Cathedral of Santa María is located.

In 2020 in the diocese there were 363 parishes grouped into 9 archpriests:

• Valles de Andorra
• Alto Urgel
• Urgel Media
• Under Urgel
• Noguera
• Nuria-Cerdaña
• Valle de Arán
• Pallars Sobirá
• Pallars Jussá

The bishops of Urgel are co-princes of Andorra along with the president of France.

History

The diocese was erected in the IV century. The first bishop of whom we have news, Saint Justus, participated in the councils of Toledo (531) and of Lérida and Valencia (546).

The episcopal succession was not interrupted during the Arab invasion (714).

Bishop Felix (781-799) was accused of adoptionism by Carolingian theologians and was later deposed and exiled to Lyon.

In 1010 in the town of Ivorra a famous Eucharistic miracle occurred: while the parish priest Bernat Oliver, who had doubts about transubstantiation, celebrated the Eucharist, the wine was transformed into living blood. Bishop Saint Ermengol immediately informed Pope Sergius IV of the miracle. The relics of the miracle were collected in a precious reliquary in 1426 and in 1663 a sanctuary was built.

From century X and until century XIII, the bishops of Urgel accumulated an important patrimony of lordships, behaving fully like feudal lords of the time. Since September 8, 1278, the bishops of Urgel are also co-princes of Andorra along with the successive counts of Foix first and, by succession, with the kings of Navarre, succeeded by the kings of France and, already in republican times, the presidents of the French Republic (as heads of State).

Towards the year 1000 the parishes were grouped into archdeaconries, transformed into deaneries in the second half of the 13th century and later They were transformed back into official offices. In modern times, the current subdivision into archiprestazgos was adopted.

In the 11th century the Gregorian reform was introduced in the diocese, that is, the transition from the Visigothic rite to the Roman.

The collegiate churches of the canons were of great importance in the Middle Ages: those of Mur and Áger were perhaps the most important in all of Catalonia. They were abolished following the concordat of 1851, along with the cathedral chapter, of which there are documents as early as the IX century.

The 12th and 13th centuries were characterized by the Albigensian crisis, which mainly affected the northern part of the diocese. Many churches were destroyed and in 1195 the city and cathedral were sacked. In the second half of the 13th century, thanks to the work of the Dominicans, the crisis came to an end, but not without requiring the martyrdom of Pere de la Cadireta, Bernat de Travesseres and Ponç de Planès.

Starting in the XIV century, the Holy See exercised the right to elect the bishop, previously reserved to the chapter, and until At the Council of Trent many of the bishops did not reside in the diocese.

In 1592 the diocesan seminary was established.

On July 19, 1593, it gave up part of its territory for the erection of the diocese of Solsona through the bull Super universas of Pope Clement VIII.

From the XVII century, the appointment of bishops by the Crown became more frequent.

In 1803, some parishes whose territory had passed to France with the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 were ceded to the French dioceses.

With the abolition of feudalism (1811-1837) the diocese lost all rights of political jurisdiction, retaining only those of the principality of Andorra.

The confiscation of Mendizábal in 1835 and similar subsequent laws resulted in the closure of many convents and monasteries.

During the Spanish Civil War, the anti-religious persecution of 1936 cost the lives of 107 diocesan priests, to which must be added many other religious and lay people, as well as the destruction of a substantial part of the religious and cultural heritage of the diocese. Some of the victims of the civil war have already been canonized (first Jaume Hilari in 1999), others are in the process of beatification.

On March 16, 1956, with the apostolic letter Quasi arx, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Holy Virgin Mary of Nuria and Saint Ermengaudio as patrons of the diocese.

In 1957 the diocesan boundaries were changed for the last time.

Statistics

According to the Pontifical Yearbook 2021, the diocese had a total of 209,100 baptized faithful at the end of 2020.

In addition, according to official figures, in the 2017-18 academic year, 6 seminarians were trained in the diocesan Major Seminary.

Episcopologe