Coria

(C AURIA ; C AURIENSIS )

Diocese in Spain, suffragan of Toledo; it includes nearly the entire province of Céceres, with the exception of a few parishes that belong to the Diocese of Salamanca. The first mention of a Diocese of Coria is in 589 when its bishop, Jacintus, subscribed the acts of the Third Council of Toledo. Under Visigothic rule Coria was a suffragan of Mérida. During the Arab conquest the episcopal list was continued by means of titular bishops ; one of them, Jacobus, appears among the prelates who assisted at the consecration of the church of Compostela in 876. After the reconquest of the city (1142) Alfonso VII turned the mosque into a cathedral, and had it reconstructed in honour of the Blessed Virgin and all the saints.

The first bishop of the new series was Iñigo Navarrón. The statistics for 1906 were: Catholics, 171,041; priests, ú parishes, 124; churches, 159; chapels, 186.