José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría
| José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría y Escalante | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Diocese | Durango |
| Appointed | 28 February 1831 |
| Installed | 2 October 1831 |
| Term ended | 28 November 1863 |
| Predecessor | Juan Francisco Castañiza Larrea y Gonzalez de Agüero |
| Successor | José Vicente Salinas e Infanzón |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 July 1791 |
| Died | November 28, 1863 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | Spanish, then Mexican |
| Denomination | Catholic |
José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría y Escalante (4 July 1791 - 28 November 1863) was Bishop of Durango in Mexico from 28 August 1831 until his death. He was a supporter of the Centralist Republic of Mexico, and was strongly opposed to the United States, which took control of the northern part of his diocese in 1846, due to its tolerance of faiths other than Catholicism.
José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría y Escalante was born on 4 July 1791. He was ordained around 1817. Zubiría taught at the seminary of Durango, and many of his pupils went on to become secular priests in New Mexico, including padre Antonio José Martinez of Taos, Manuel Gallegos of Albuquerque and vicar Juan Felipe Ortiz of Santa Fe. Secular priests differ from ordained priests in that they do not belong to religious orders. On 19 October 1830 he was appointed Titular Bishop of Daulia. He was appointed Bishop of Durango on 28 February 1831, ordained on 28 Aug 1831 and installed on 2 October 1831.
Bishop Zubiría was well known for his hostility to the United States (no wonder: the US had stolen about half of Mexico's territory). He may have passed on some of his views to Ramón Ortiz y Miera, who came to study under him in Durango in 1832, and later was repatriate commissioner after the Mexican-American War. Bishop Zuberia opposed the growing influence of the invading United States in the north of his diocese.
Bishop Zubiria first visited New Mexico, an area that is now the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, in the summer of 1833, travelling with a chaplain, a secretary and a guard. He was the first bishop to have visited the region for seventy two years. His visit to all parts of the territory was made with great ceremony, with the bishop dressed in his full regalia. A (Protestant) observer said of his visit to Santa Fe,
...the streets were swept, the roads and bridges on the route repaired and decorated; and from every window in the city there hung such a profusion of fancy curtains and rich cloths that the imagination was carried back to those glowing descriptions of enchanted worls which one reads of in the fables of necromancers.
When he visited San Miguel del Vado during this trip he found that the church was in very poor physical condition, and the finances were totally confused. His secretary noted that "With much grief and sorrow, he has observed that this parish church lacks even the most essential things for the celebration of the divine mysteries." In Taos he said of the local images and saints that "they are so deformed that they are not suitable for heavenly adoration." In Santa Cruz de la Cañada he spoke out strongly against the Penitente brotherhood for their excesses, and said they were illegal.
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Wikipedia