Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba
Catholic archdiocese in Cuba

The Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba (Latin: Archidioecesis Sancti Iacobi in Cuba) (erected 1518 as the Diocese of Baracoa) is a Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Cuba. It is a metropolitan see with four suffragan dioceses in its ecclesiastical province: Guantánamo-Baracoa, Holguín and Santísimo Salvador de Bayamo y Manzanillo.
Prior to elevation as a archdiocese, the Diocese of Santiago de Cuba was a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Seville in Spain until 12 February 1546 when it became a suffragan of the Diocese of Santo Domingo (now Archdiocese of Santo Domingo) in the Dominican Republic. In 1803, the see was elevated to an archdiocese. The archdiocese is the home of the Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre.
Bishops
Diocese of Baracoa
Erected: 1518
Juan de Witte Hoos, OP (1517–1525) Resigned
Diocese of Santiago de Cuba
Name Changed: 28 April 1522
Latin Name: Sancti Iacobi in Cuba
Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba
Elevated: 24 November 1803
Mariano Rodríguez de Olmedo y Valle (1824–1831) died
Cirilo de Alameda y Brea, OFM (1831–1849) died
St. Antonio María Claret y Clará, CMF (1850–1859)
Manuel María Negueruela Mendi (1859–1861) died
Primo Calvo y López (1861–1868) died
José María Martín de Herrera y de la Iglesia (1875–1889) appointed, Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela
José María Cos y Macho (1889–1892) appointed, Archbishop (Personal Title) of Madrid
Francisco Sáenz de Urturi y Crespo, OFM (1894–1899) resigned
Francisco de Paula Barnada y Aguilar (1899–1913) died
Felix Ambrosio Guerra, SDB (1915–1925) Resigned
Valentín Zubizarreta y Unamunsaga, OCD (1925–1948) died
Enrique Pérez Serantes (1948–1968) died
Pedro Claro Meurice Estiu (1970–2007) retired
Dionisio García Ibáñez (Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez) (2007–present)
Auxiliary bishops
Dionisio Resino (Rezino) y Ormachea, OSB (1705–1711)
José Francisco Martínez de Tejada y Díez de Velasco, OFM (1732–1745), appointed Bishop of Yucatán (Mérida), México
Pedro Ponce y Carrasco (1746–1762), appointed Bishop of Quito, Ecuador
Santiago José Hechavarría y Elguesúa (1768–1769), appointed Bishop here
Francisco Antonio Pablo Sieni Flannings, OFMCap (1784–1787), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of San Cristobal de la Habana
Pedro Claro Meurice Estiu (1967–1970), appointed Archbishop here
Héctor Luis Lucas Peña Gómez (1970–1979), appointed Bishop of Holguín
Other priests of this diocese who became bishops
Luis Ignatius Peñalver y Cárdenas, appointed Bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas (Saint Louis of New Orleans), USA in 1794
Carlos Riu Anglés, appointed Bishop of Camagüey in 1948
Francisco Ricardo Oves Fernández, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cienfuegos in 1969
Carlos Jesús Patricio Baladrón Valdés, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of San Cristobal de la Habana in 1991
Silvano Herminio Pedroso Montalvo, appointed Bishop of Guantánamo-Baracoa in 2018
Territorial losses
The see also gained territory in 1527 with the suppression of the Diocese of Concepción de la Vega.
External links and references
"Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba". Catholic-Hierarchy. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
“Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba” enters the record as catholic archdiocese in Cuba. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Archdiocese, Santiago and Cuba can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1365507. VIAF identifies the subject as 152642685. The Library of Congress control number is n2003054025. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1518, 1546, 1803 and 1517.
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