The Diocese of Beja () is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of the

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in Portugal. It is a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of the

archdiocese of Évora In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

History

Beja lies on the site of

Pax Julia ''Pax Iulia'' (also known as ''Colonia Civitas Pacensis'') or later ''Pax Augusta'' was a city in the Roman province of Lusitania (today situated in the Portuguese municipality of Beja). History The region was inhabited during 400 BC by Celtic ...

, or Paca, of the Romans, and is still surrounded by remains of old Roman walls, partly restored. The diocese was created 10 June 1770. Beja was taken from its Islamic rulers in 1162 by

Afonso I of Portugal Dom Afonso IOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician languages, Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on th ...

. Beja Cathedral is an old church, much modernized, of uncertain date. The chronicler

Isidorus Pacensis The ''Chronicle of 754'' (also called the ''Mozarabic Chronicle'' or ''Continuatio Hispana'') is a Latin-language history in 95 sections, written by an anonymous Mozarab (Christian) chronicler in Al-Andalus. The ''Chronicle'' contains the earlie ...

, of the eighth century, was traditionally said to have been bishop of Beja; but this is now disputed.S. M. Imamuddin, ''Muslim Spain 711-1492 A.D.: A Sociological Study'' (1981), p. 19.

References

{{authority control Beja Beja, Roman Catholic Diocese of

History

See also

References