Francisco García Diego y Moreno
Encyclopedia
Francisco García Diego y Moreno, OFM, (17 September 1785, in Lagos
, in the modern-day Mexican state of Jalisco
– 30 April 1846, in Santa Barbara
) was the first bishop
of the Diocese of the Two Californias.
of Francis at the missionary College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas
, made his vows the following year and was ordained a priest
at Monterrey
, Nuevo León
, 14 Nov., 1808. For the next twenty years Father Diego was mainly occupied in preaching missions
, and during this period compiled a small work, Metodo de Misionar, or "Method for Giving Missions". From 1816 to 1819 he was master
of novices, in 1822 he was made discretos, and in February 1832, guardian or superior
of the missionary college.
. They reached Cabo San Lucas
in September 1832, and Monterey
, the capital, in February 1833. The Guadalupan friars took charge of the missions from San Antonio
to Sonoma. On 6 March, Father Diego chose Mission Santa Clara
for his field of labor.
, in order to preserve the Church in California. On 19 Sept., 1836, the Mexican government decided to petition the pope to create California a bishopric
and congress at the same time decreed to pay the new bishop an annual salary of $6,000 until the diocese should have a sufficient income. Of the three candidates proposed by the metropolitan chapter on 22 June 1839, the Mexican government on 6 April 1840, recommended Father Francisco Garcia Diego.
On 27 April Pope Gregory XVI
withdrew California from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Sonora, and at the same time appointed Father Diego first Bishop of Upper
and Lower California with the see
at Mission San Diego de Alcalá
.
, on 4 October 1840, and on 11 December 1841, landed at San Diego. Owing to the poverty and insignificance of the place, he removed his residence to Mission Santa Barbara
on 11 January 1842. When he arrived, there were only seventeen Franciscan
Fathers, mostly aged and infirm, in charge of the twenty-one secularized Indian
missions and six Spanish towns. The bishop began with great plans and a desire to promote the welfare of the church in his territory.
. But, in February 1842, President Santa Anna
confiscated the Fund. The bishop received no aid and he was obliged to depend upon the contributions from the few white settlers in the territory. Many of them refused to pay the tithe
s which he had found it necessary to impose.
on the Pacific coast at the former Mission Santa Inés
, about fifteen miles from the ocean and forty-five miles from Santa Barbara. He also made a first visitation of all the churches in the diocese, and to some places even went a second time. Worn out by hardships and disheartened at the deplorable conditions which he could not remedy, Bishop Diego died, and was buried in the old Mission Santa Barbara
.
Bishop García Diego High School
in Santa Barbara is named him.
Lagos de Moreno
Lagos de Moreno is a city and its surrounding municipal area of the same name, located in the extreme northeastern part of the state of Jalisco in Mexico...
, in the modern-day Mexican state of Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
– 30 April 1846, in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
) was the first bishop
Bishop (Catholic Church)
In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith and ruling the Church....
of the Diocese of the Two Californias.
Early episcopal appointments
In 1801, he received the habitReligious habit
A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anachoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform...
of Francis at the missionary College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas
College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas
The College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas was a Roman Catholic Franciscan missionary college, or seminary , founded in Guadalupe, Zacatecas by the Order of Friars Minor between 1703-1707...
, made his vows the following year and was ordained a priest
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
at Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
, Nuevo León
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
, 14 Nov., 1808. For the next twenty years Father Diego was mainly occupied in preaching missions
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
, and during this period compiled a small work, Metodo de Misionar, or "Method for Giving Missions". From 1816 to 1819 he was master
Master (college)
A Master is the title of the head of some colleges and other educational institutions. This applies especially at some colleges and institutions at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge .- See also :* Master A Master (or in female form Mistress) is the title of the head of some...
of novices, in 1822 he was made discretos, and in February 1832, guardian or superior
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of the missionary college.
Governmental influence
The Mexican government, which had resolved to expel all Spanish friars from California, in April 1832, requested that the college send eleven native Mexican Franciscans members to California. Father Diego went as the commissaryCommissary
A commissary is someone delegated by a superior to execute a duty or an office; in a formal, legal context, one who has received power from a legitimate superior authority to pass judgment in a certain cause or to take information concerning it.-Word history:...
. They reached Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas , commonly called Cabo, is a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, in the municipality of Los Cabos in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,463 people...
in September 1832, and Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, the capital, in February 1833. The Guadalupan friars took charge of the missions from San Antonio
Mission San Antonio de Padua
Mission San Antonio de Padua was founded on July 14, 1771, the third mission founded in Alta California by Father Presidente Junípero Serra, and site of the first Christian marriage and first use of fired-tile roofing in Upper California.-History:...
to Sonoma. On 6 March, Father Diego chose Mission Santa Clara
Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Mission Santa Clara de Asís was founded on January 12, 1777 and named for Santa Clara de Asis , the foundress of the order of the Poor Clares. Although ruined and rebuilt six times, the settlement was never abandoned.-History:...
for his field of labor.
Creation of diocese
He remained here until the end of 1835, when he visited Mexico to induce the government to have a bishop appointedAppointment of Catholic bishops
The appointment of bishops in the Catholic Church is a complicated process. Outgoing bishops, neighbouring bishops, the faithful, the apostolic nuncio, various members of the Roman Curia, and the pope all have a role in the selection...
, in order to preserve the Church in California. On 19 Sept., 1836, the Mexican government decided to petition the pope to create California a bishopric
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
and congress at the same time decreed to pay the new bishop an annual salary of $6,000 until the diocese should have a sufficient income. Of the three candidates proposed by the metropolitan chapter on 22 June 1839, the Mexican government on 6 April 1840, recommended Father Francisco Garcia Diego.
On 27 April Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI , born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, named Mauro as a member of the religious order of the Camaldolese, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1831 to 1846...
withdrew California from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Sonora, and at the same time appointed Father Diego first Bishop of Upper
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
and Lower California with the see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
at Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá, in San Diego, California, was the first Franciscan mission in the Las Californias Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was founded in 1769 by Spanish friar Junípero Serra in an area long inhabited by the Kumeyaay Indians...
.
Consecration as first diocesan bishop
Diego was consecrated at the Franciscan church of Guadalupe, ZacatecasGuadalupe, Zacatecas
Guadalupe is the third-largest city in the state of Zacatecas in Mexico. It lies adjacent to the east side of the city of Zacatecas and is a component of the Zacatecas-Guadalupe metropolitan area. The city had a 2005 census population of 99,572 inhabitants and serves as municipal seat of the...
, on 4 October 1840, and on 11 December 1841, landed at San Diego. Owing to the poverty and insignificance of the place, he removed his residence to Mission Santa Barbara
Mission Santa Barbara
In 1840, Alta California and Baja California were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849...
on 11 January 1842. When he arrived, there were only seventeen Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Fathers, mostly aged and infirm, in charge of the twenty-one secularized Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
missions and six Spanish towns. The bishop began with great plans and a desire to promote the welfare of the church in his territory.
Governmental interference
The Mexican government had encouraged him by giving him a fixed salary and entrusted to him the management of the Pious Fund of the CaliforniasPious Fund of the Californias
The Pious Fund of the Californias, is a fund, originating in 1697, to sponsor the Roman Catholic Jesuit Spanish missions in Baja California, and Franciscan Spanish missions in Alta California in the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1769 to 1823, and originally administered by the Jesuits...
. But, in February 1842, President Santa Anna
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...
confiscated the Fund. The bishop received no aid and he was obliged to depend upon the contributions from the few white settlers in the territory. Many of them refused to pay the tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s which he had found it necessary to impose.
Achievements
Nevertheless Diego opened the first seminarySeminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
on the Pacific coast at the former Mission Santa Inés
Mission Santa Inés
Mission Santa Inés was founded on September 17, 1804 by Father Estévan Tapís, who had succeeded Father Fermín Lasuén as President of the California mission chain...
, about fifteen miles from the ocean and forty-five miles from Santa Barbara. He also made a first visitation of all the churches in the diocese, and to some places even went a second time. Worn out by hardships and disheartened at the deplorable conditions which he could not remedy, Bishop Diego died, and was buried in the old Mission Santa Barbara
Mission Santa Barbara
In 1840, Alta California and Baja California were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849...
.
Bishop García Diego High School
Bishop Garcia Diego High School
Bishop Garcia Diego High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Santa Barbara, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.-Background:...
in Santa Barbara is named him.
Sources
- catholic-hierarchy.org Retrieved: 2010-03-17.
- Diocese of Monterey Retrieved: 2010-03-17.