The Diocese of Jaca (Latin, Jaccensis) is located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragón. The diocese forms part of the ecclesiastical province of Pamplona, and is thus suffragan to the Archdiocese of Pamplona.
Jaca originally belonged to the diocese of Huesca, but after the Moorish conquest of Huesca in 713 its bishops, (known as the itinerant "Bishops of Aragon"), moved to Aragon. The episcopal seat was established in Jaca during 1063-1096, then moved back to Huesca after king Pedro I of Aragon retook the city from the Moors in November of 1096. The diocese of Jaca was created in 1572, carved out of the diocese of Huesca.
Jaca, capital of the mountain county of Jacetania, is situated on the left bank of the Aragon River, a tributary of the river Ebro, about 800 meters above sea-level.
The cathedral of Jaca, dedicated to the Most Blessed Virgin of El Pilar, is a basilica of Romanesque design, built in the eleventh century; it was consecrated in the late 11th century and altered in the 15th-18th centuries.
A religious and civil festival is held on the first Friday of May, locally referred to as "Primer Viernes de Mayo", in memory of a victory said to have been won over the Moors in the eighth century by Count Aznar aided by the women of Jaca. It is celebrated with a solemn procession in which the entire cathedral chapter takes part.
There are many hermitages around Jaca, but none more interesting than that of San Juan de la Peña, esconced within a cave in the Pyrenees. This spectacular shrine was also a monastery, royal mausoleum, and allegedly one of the many hiding places of the holy grail in the middle ages. It continue to be a stop along the Camino de Santiago for many pilgrims and tourists alike. In another cave, dedicated to La Virgen de la Cueva, locals gather annually to pay homage to "Our Lade of the Cave" - a venerated shrine where Garcí Ximénez was proclaimed first King of Sobrarbe in the 8th Century.
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Jaca was once the capital of the Jaccetani, a tribe mentioned by Strabo. This territory was the scene of battles between Sertorius and Pompey and later between Pompey's son Sextus and Caesar's generals.
Ecclesiastically, Jaca originally belonged to the Diocese of Huesca. When in 713 the town of Huesca was seized by the Moors, the bishop fled, and the diocese was directed from Aragon by itinerant bishops, sometimes called bishops of Aragon, sometimes bishops of Huesca or Jaca, who lived either at Jaca or in the neighbouring monasteries of San Juan de la Peña, San Pedro de Siresa, and San Adrián de Sasabe.
Among the itinerant bishops of Aragon were:
A council held at Jaca in 1063 determined anew the boundaries of the Diocese of Huesca, which thereafter included the present dioceses of Huesca, Jaca, and Barbastro, as well as a part of the Diocese of Lérida. Jaca was then made the permanent seat of the diocese.
At the same time Sancho was appointed Bishop of Huesca (1058-1075), and hastened to request the Pope Alexander II to confirm the decisions of the council. In the same year of 1063, however, King Sancho Ramirez of Aragon (1063-1094) had won back from the Moors the city of Barbastro, and had granted it to the Bishop of Roda. García Ramírez, the new Bishop of Huesca (1076-1086), regarded this as an infringement of the rights of jurisdiction granted the Bishop of Jaca by the Council of Jaca. He therefore renewed his petition to the new pope (Gregory VII) to have the decisions of the council confirmed, which request the pope granted (cf. Jaffé, "Reg. Pont. Roman", I, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1885, n. 5098). As, however, Bishop Raimundo of Roda also obtained the confirmation of all his privileges from Gregory, a violent dispute arose between the Bishops of Huesca and Roda as to jurisdiction over the churches of Barbastro, Bielsa, Gistao, and Alquezar, which in 1080 was decided by the king in favour of the Bishop of Roda.
In November of 1096, King Pedro I of Aragon took back Huesca from the Moors and restored the original see. Pope Urban II decreed (May 11, 1098) that, instead of Jaca, Huesca should again be the seat of the bishop, as it had been until the year 713 (cf. Jaffé, "Reg. Pont. Roman", I, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1885, n. 5703).
But Jaca itself had a separate existence under a vicar-general, independent of the Bishop of Huesca. It also retained its own cathedral chapter, which originally followed the Rule of St. Augustine, but in 1270 both this chapter and that of Huesca were secularized.
Jaca was again erected into a separate diocese and was made suffragan to the Metropolitan See of Zaragoza by a Bull of Pope Pius V (July 18, 1571), which decision was carried into effect on February 26, 1572. The first bishop was Pedro del Frago.
According to the diocesan statistics of 1907 Jaca possessed 73,659 inhabitants, 151 parishes, 151 parish churches, 239 public and 10 private oratories, 236 secular priests, 30 regulars, and 54 sisters. The religious orders and congregations in the diocese are:
This article draws only from other Wikipedia articles and these four sources:
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