Roman Catholic Diocese of Calbayog


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Calbayog is an ecclesiastical territory of the Catholic Church named after its episcopal see, Calbayog City, a city on the western side of the province of Samar in the Philippines.

History

Samar and Leyte, two civil provinces in the Visayan group of the Philippines, which include the islands of Balicuatro, Batac, Biliran, Capul, Daram, Homonhon, Leyte, Manicani, Panaon, Samar and several smaller islands, once make up the diocese of Calbayog, now a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palo. The diocesan see Calbayog has a cathedral dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.
The Diocese of Calbayog is the local church comprising the civil territorial jurisdiction of western side of Samar Island. The island, the third largest in the Philippines, is composed of three provinces: Northern Samar with Catarman as capital, Eastern Samar with Borongan as capital and the Samar Province with Catbalogan as the capital. The City of Calbayog is where the Cathedral of the diocese is located since its ecclesiastical foundation on April 10, 1910 by Pope Pius X. The new Diocese was comprised then of the whole Samar and Leyte islands, separate from the Archdiocese of Cebu. Subsequently, Palo was ceded from Calbayog as a separate diocese in 1937, Borongan in 1965 and Catarman in 1975.
The historical vicissitudes of the Diocese of Calbayog cannot be fully appreciated apart from the history of the early evangelical labors of the first missionaries who came to the island of Samar. The first Jesuit missionaries reached Leyte and Samar in 1595, the islands subsequently forming part of the Diocese of Cebu until erected into a separate diocese on 10 April 1910. The first bishop was Pablo Singzon de la Anunciacion.
It was transferred to the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Palo, which was promoted to a Metropolitan Archdiocese on November 15, 1982.

Local Ordinaries

  1. Pablo Singzon de la Anunciacion †
  2. Sofronio Hacbang y Gaborni †
  3. Miguel Acebedo y Flores †
  4. Manuel P. Del Rosario †
  5. Cipriano Urgel y Villahermosa †
  6. Ricardo Pido Tancinco
  7. Sincero Barcenilla Lucero †
  8. Maximiano Tuazon Cruz
  9. Jose S. Palma
  10. Isabelo Caiban Abarquez