Barbastro

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Barbastro

Barbastro (Latin Barbastrum or Civitas Barbastrensis) is suffragan diocese of the Spanish province of Huesca in the Comunidad Autonoma de Aragon. The city (originally, perhaps, Bergidum or Bergiduna) is at the junction of the rivers Cinca and Vero. In the time of the Romans it was a part of the province Hispania Citerior ("Nearer Spain"), afterwards called Hispania Tarraconensis.

The city was taken by the Arabs, under the leadership of Muza (711), and the name Barbaschter given to it, from which the name Barbastrum, according to the generally accepted opinion, is derived. It was held by the Saracens until about the year 1063, when it was retaken by Sancho Ramírez, King of Aragón, and an international force, led by William VIII of Aquitaine and Le Bon Normand, in the so-called War of Barbastro. The Arabs once more obtained possession, but Armengol IV, Count of Urgel, reconquered it, and after a third Arab conquest it was restored to Spain, in 1101, by Pedro I, King of Aragon, who, with the pope's consent, constituted it an episcopal see, transferring the see from the ancient city of Roda to Barbastro. The first bishop, Poncio, went to Rome to obtain the pope's permission for this transfer. Many provincial and diocesan councils have been held in the city since; the Cortes of Spain has met there occasionally, and during one of its sessions, King Ramiro II, called "the Monk", abdicated the crown (1134).

The diocese is bounded on the north by the Pyrenees, on the east and south by the diocese of Lérida, and on the west by those of Huesca and Jaca. It is a suffragan of Zaragoza and in 1908, it was composed of 154 parishes under the supervision of ten archpriests, or vicars. The population was about 240,000. The clergy numbered about 220, and there were 231 churches and 177 chapels. The diocese was annexed to the diocese of Huesca in the 16th century, but was afterwards made independent and remained so until the Concordat of 1851, which annexed it once more to Huesca, preserving its name and administration. It is administered at present by the titular Bishop of Claudiopolis, Don Juan Antonio Ruano, preconized Bishop of Lérida. Among its bishops, Ramon II, who is venerated as a saint, and the above-mentioned Ramiro, called "the Monk", a prince of the royal house of Aragon, deserve special mention.

Bartolomé and Lupercio Argensola, historians and classical Spanish writers, were born in Barbastro. Bartolomé is the author of the "Historia de las Molucas", "Anales de Aragón", and "Regla de Perfección"; Lupercio wrote three tragedies, "Isabel", "Jebe", and "Alejandro", and some poems published with others written by his brother Bartolomé. The cathedral, the episcopal palace, the seminary, and the college of the Clerks Regular of the Pious Schools, or Piarists, are among the most noted buildings in the city. The Opus Dei Founder, the Roman Catholic priest Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer was born in Barbastro.

Besides the seminary for the education of young ecclesiastics, there were in the early 20th century in the diocese various religious communities of both sexes devoted to a contemplative life and the education of the young: the Piarists, the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Poor Clares and the Capuchine nuns in the capital, the Benedictines in the town of Pueyo and the Discalced Carmelites in Graus and Salas-Altas; and schools in all the towns of the diocese.