The Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. It covers the province of Ilocos Sur, on the island of Luzon. The see of the archdiocese is the city of Vigan.
The archdiocese was erected in 1595 in the city of Nueva Segovia (modern-day Lal-lo, Cagayan, which has been part of the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao since 1910). The see was transferred to Vigan in 1758 at the request of Bishop Juan de la Fuente Yepes because of its relative distance, during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XIV. It became an archdiocese in 1951.
The archdiocese features the only archbishop's residence in the Philippines built during the Spanish era. It is located beside Vigan Cathedral. The rear of the convent also had access to the nearby Govantes Dike, a convenient exit point by sea, but it is no longer in use because the dike is no longer navigable. Both the archbishop's residence and the cathedral remain among the greatest contributions of the Order of Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines.
The archdiocese operates its own radio station, dzNS ("NS" meaning "New Sound" and "Nueva Segovia"), which is a member of the Catholic Media Network.
It also publishes a weekly newspaper, Timek ti Amianan ().
History
The Diocese of Nueva Segovia was established together with Cebu and Nueva Cáceres by Pope Clement VIII on August 14, 1595, by virtue of the papal bull Super Specula Militantis Ecclesia under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. Its first bishop was Miguel de Benavides. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended to the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Batanes, Mountain Province and five northern towns of Tarlac.
Although Vigan was the oldest town created by the Spaniards in the north, it was not made the seat of the diocese which was created for Northern Luzon since the preferred locale, Nueva Segovia, a city at the mouth of the Cagayan River in Cagayan, was by then already a flourishing Spanish settlement while Vigan was then only a pueblo, a town. Eventually however, the city of Nueva Segovia was gradually effaced by the floods of the Rio Grande, and the seat was provisionally transferred to the nearby town of Lal-lo, Cagayan. On September 7, 1758, the seat was permanently transferred to Vigan, retaining the old name, up to the present. The transfer was made at the request of the bishop Juan de la Fuente Yepes during the pontificate of Benedict XIV.
Nueva Segovia was elevated to an archdiocese, separated from Manila on June 29, 1951, by virtue of the papal bull Quo in Philippina Republica of Pope Pius XII. As the other local churches matured, there was eventual weaning from the archdiocese. Presently, it covers the civil province of Ilocos Sur, with the Dioceses of Laoag, Bangued and Baguio, and the Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe as suffragans. Santiago C. Sancho was the first archbishop of the newly elevated metropolitan church. Since Sancho, there had been five other ordinaries of Nueva Segovia – Archbishops Juan C. Sison, Jose Tomas Sanchez, Orlando Quevedo, Edmundo Abaya, Ernesto A. Salgado and currently, Marlo Peralta who is 37th bishop and 7th archbishop.
The archdiocese maintains a complex of mass communications media – an AM radio station, DzNS (963 kHz) founded in 1968; a weekly newspaper, Timek ti Amianan founded in 1983; and a printing press, the Imprenta Nueva Segovia, founded in 1995.
In December 2018, the Nueva Segovia Archdiocesan Archives known as Archivo Nueva Segovia (ANS) was declared a national cultural treasure by the National Archives of the Philippines becoming one of only three archives, including the National Archives and the University of Santo Tomas Archives, to be given the distinction. The archives was established in the early 1990s by Archbishop Orlando Quevedo.
Coat of arms The sword and the book are symbols of Paul the Apostle, patron saint of the cathedral at Vigan. The sword was the instrument of his martyrdom, the book stands for the gospel which he preached as an apostle. The inscription Gladius Spiritus (Sword of the Spirit) is taken from his epistle to the Ephesians (6:17): "Make the helmet of salvation your own, and the sword of the Spirit, God's word." The red background stands for his burning zeal for souls and for his martyrdom.
The snaky figure in silver that traverses the bottom of the field represents the Abra river on the north bank of which is the seat of the archdiocese of Nueva Segovia.
The popular name of the seat of Nueva Segovia is Vigan which derived its name from the Ilocano word "bigaan," a contraction of 'cabigaan' meaning where the 'biga' abounds, a plant of the taro family but bigger than the taro and with bigger tubers; hence its scientific name Alocasia macrorhiza meaning an alocasia with big root.
Ordinaries Bishops and archbishops Bishop Period in office Notes Coat of arms Bishops of Nueva Segovia (August 30, 1595 – June 29, 1951) 1 Miguel de Benavides August 30, 1595 – October 7, 1602 () Appointed metropolitan archbishop of Manila 2 Diego Soria November 15, 1602 – 1613(approximately 10–11 years) Died in office 3 Miguel García Serrano August 3, 1616 – February 12, 1618() Appointed metropolitan archbishop of Manila 4 Juan Rentería March 5, 1618 – 1626 (approximately 8 years) Died in office 5 Hernando Guerrero May 17, 1627 – January 9, 1634() Appointed metropolitan archbishop of Manila 6 Diego Aduarte January 23, 1634 – 1636 (approximately 2 years) Died in office 7 Fernando Montero Espinosa July 16, 1639 – February 5, 1646 () Appointed metropolitan archbishop of Manila 8 Rodrigo Cárdenas May 30, 1650 – May 1661(approximately 11 years) Died in office José Millán de Poblete May 27, 1675 – 1675 Died before his episcopal consecration 9 Francisco Pizaro de Orellana May 27, 1680 – September 2, 1683() Died in office 10 Diego de Gorospe e Irala June 1, 1699 – May 20, 1715() Died in office Pedro Mejorada October 1, 1717 – July 31, 1719() Bishop-elect; died in office 11 Jeronimo Herrera y Lopez November 20, 1724 – March 1742(approximately 17.3 years) Died in office Manuel del Rio Flores May 16, 1744 – 1745(approximately 1 year) Bishop-elect; died in office Juan de Arechederra January 19, 1750 – November 12, 1751() Bishop-elect; died in office 12 Juan de la Fuente Yepes May 28, 1753 – 1757(approximately 4 years) Died in office Bernardo de Ustariz December 19, 1763 – August 2, 1764() Bishop-elect; died in office 13 Miguel García San Esteban September 16, 1768 – November 11, 1779() Died in office 14 Juan García Ruiz June 25, 1784 – May 2, 1796() Died in office 15 Agustín Pedro Blaquier July 20, 1801 – December 31, 1803() Died in office 16 Cayetano Pallás October 6, 1806 – 1814(approximately 7 years) Died in office 17 Francisco Albán Barreiro April 14, 1817 – December 8, 1837() Died in office Rafael Masoliver January 19, 1846 – 1846 Bishop-elect; died in office 18 Vicente Barreiro y Pérez April 14, 1848 – May 17, 1856() Died in office 19 Juan José Aragonés March 27, 1865 – August 14, 1872() Died in office 20 Mariano Cuartero y Sierra January 16, 1874 – August 2, 1887() Died in office 21 José Hevía y Campomanes May 27, 1889 – June 12, 1903() Appointed bishop of Badajoz 22 Dennis Joseph Dougherty June 12, 1903 – June 21, 1908() Appointed bishop of Jaro 23 James Jordan Carroll June 21, 1908 – October 26, 1912() Appointed titular bishop of Metellopolis 24 Peter Joseph Hurth January 7, 1913 – November 12, 1926() Appointed titular archbishop of Bostra 25 Santiago Caragnan Sancho April 22, 1927 – June 29, 1951() Elevated as archbishop Metropolitan archbishops of Nueva Segovia (June 29, 1951 – present) 1 Santiago Caragnan Sancho June 29, 1951 – October 12, 1966() Died in office 2 Juan Callanta Sison October 12, 1966 – September 12, 1981() Died in office 3 Jose Tomas Sanchez January 12, 1982 – March 22, 1986() Appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples 4 Orlando Beltran Quevedo March 22, 1986 – May 30, 1998() Appointed metropolitan archbishop of Cotabato 5 Edmundo Madarang Abaya May 22, 1999 – May 31, 2005() Retired 6 Ernesto Antolin Salgado May 31, 2005 – April 2, 2014() Retired 7 Marlo Mendoza Peralta April 2, 2014 – January 14, 2026() Retired 8 David William Antonio January 14, 2026 – present()
Timeline
Coadjutor archbishops No. Bishop Period in officeNotesCoat of arms 1 Juan Callanta Sison August 20, 1956 – October 12, 1966() Succeeded Archbishop Sancho in 1966
Auxiliary bishops No. Bishop Period in officeTitular seeNotesCoat of arms 1 Juan Callanta Sison July 25, 1947 – August 20, 1956() Limata Appointed coadjutor archbishop, later succeeded as metropolitan archbishop 2 Victorino Cristobal Ligot March 27, 1969 – February 6, 1970() Budua Appointed bishop of San Fernando de La Union 3 Miguel Gatan Purugganan April 22, 1971 – January 21, 1974() Egnatia Appointed bishop of Ilagan 4Antonio Isauro Alzate BuenafeFebruary 9, 1976 – May 7, 1976()MetaDied in office 5 Salvador Lazo Lazo August 3, 1977 – January 20, 1981() Selia Appointed bishop of San Fernando de La Union 6 Patricio Maqui Lopez December 5, 1985 – February 20, 1991() Arba Died in office 7 David William Valencia Antonio August 26, 2011 – November 14, 2018() Basti Appointed bishop of Ilagan
Suffragan dioceses and bishops
Diocese Image Bishop Period in office Coat of armsBaguio (Baguio City, Benguet) Rafael T. Cruz September 17, 2024 – present () Bangued (Abra) Leopoldo C. JaucianS.V.D. March 31, 2007 – present () Laoag (Ilocos Norte) Renato P. Mayugba December 11, 2012 – present ()
Notable churches under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese
See also Catholic Church in the Philippines List of Catholic dioceses in the Philippines List of Catholic archdioceses
References
External links
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11149b.htm http://www.cbcponline.org/jurisdictions/nueva_segovia.html