Antonio Caballero y Góngora

Antonio Caballero y Góngora (in full, Antonio Pascual de San Pedro de Alcántara Caballero y Góngora) (May 24, 1723 in Priego, Córdoba, Spain – March 24, 1796 in Córdoba) was a Spanish Roman Catholic prelate in the colonial Viceroyalty of New Granada, and from 1782 to 1789 the viceroy of New Granada (present day Colombia and Ecuador).

Antonio Caballero was born into an Hidalgo family in Córdoba. His parents were Juan Caballero y Espinar and Antonia de Góngora. He studied first in Córdoba. At the age of 15 he received a scholarship to study theology in the Colegio de San Bartolomé y Santiago in Granada. He continued his studies at the Colegio Imperial de Santa Catalina, graduating in 1744. He was ordained a priest on September 19, 1750. About this time he wrote a biography of the Granadan poet José Antonio Porcel y Salablanca.

In 1753 he was named canon of the cathedral of Córdoba, where he remained until 1775. He was a cultured man and a lover of the arts. He collected paintings by Velázquez, Rubens, Titian, etc., and his library contained the most modern works on all branches of knowledge. He was also a numismatist.

He was named bishop of Mérida in Yucatán in 1775, in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (colonial México). He brought with him 38 crates of books, rich ornaments, paintings, and coins. He reorganized the Colegio de San Pedro, which had fallen on hard times since the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767.

In 1777 he was named archbishop of Santa Fé de Bogotá in the colonial Viceroyalty of New Granada by King Charles III, and confirmed by the pope. He arrived there on March 5, 1778. There he worked assiduously and successfully to pacify the rebels of the Comunero Revolt. For his services, King Charles subsequently made him a member of the Order of Carlos III and viceroy of New Granada.

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