Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo - History

History

It was erected by Pope Julius II who by the Bull Pontifex Romanus on that date established also the See of Concepción de la Vega and the See of San Juan of Porto Rico. Three prelates, who had been appointed to the sees comprising the ecclesiastical province created previously (1504) by the same Pope, united their petition to that of the Crown in requesting the Holy See to suppress the same and to establish the three new dioceses as suffragans to the See of Seville. This alteration was effected before any one of the prelates in question had taken possession of his diocese or had received consecration.

Father Francisco Garcia de Padilla, Franciscan, who had been in 1504 the prelate designed to occupy the See of Bayuna (Baynoa, Baiunensis), on the extinction of the same was chosen the first Bishop of Santo Domingo, having been so mentioned in the Bull of the erection of the diocese. He died before his consecration, after having named Rev. Carlos de Aragón his vicar-general and having authorized him to take possession of the diocese in the name of the bishop, who never reached America. The first bishop to occupy the See of Santo Domingo was Alessandro Geraldini, appointed in 1516 and died in 1524. He was a native of Italy, and perhaps the only representative of all America to assist at the Fifth Lateran Council.

Pope Paul III on 12 February 1545, elevated Santo Domingo to the rank of an archdiocese, the incumbent of the see at the time, Bishop Alonso de Fuenmayor, becoming the first archbishop. Santo Domingo as the first metropolitan see of America, according to the terms of the Bull of erection "Super Universas Orbis Ecclesias", had five suffragan sees, as follows: Diocese of Puerto Rico, Diocese of Santiago in Cuba, Diocese of Coro in Venezuela, Diocese of Santa Marta in Colombia, and Diocese of Trujillo in Honduras. The Diocese of Concepción de la Vega had been united, after the death of its first bishop, Pedro Suárez de Deza, to the See of Santo Domingo by Apostolic authority. Nothing in the text of the Bull of erection would warrant the use of the title of Primate of the Indies by the archbishop of this see.

The Bull of Pope Alexander VI, dated 24 June 1493, designated the Franciscan Bernardo Buil (Boil) to accompany Columbus on his second voyage of discovery, with faculties as Apostolic delegate or vicar. He did not make the journey, and his Benedictine near-namesake did. On 30 August 1495, a band of Franciscans and other missioners did arrive in Hispaniola.