Roman Catholic Diocese of Calbayog

Samar and Leyte, two civil provinces in the Visayan group of the Philippines, which include the islands of Balicuatro, Batac, Biliran, Capul, Daram, Homonhon, Leyte, Manicani, Panaon, Samar and several smaller islands, once make up the diocese of Calbayog, now a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palo. The diocesan see Calbayog has a cathedral dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.

The Diocese of Calbayog is the local church comprising the civil territorial jurisdiction of western side of Samar Island. The island, the third largest in the Philippines, is composed of three provinces: Northern Samar with Catarman as capital, Eastern Samar with Borongan as capital and the Samar Province (in the West) with Catbalogan as the capital. The City of Calbayog is where the Cathedral of the diocese is located since its ecclesiastical foundation on April 10, 1910 by Pope Pius X. The new Diocese was comprised then of the whole Samar and Leyte islands, separate from the Archdiocese of Cebu. Subsequently, Palo was ceded from Calbayog as a separate diocese in 1937, Borongan in 1965 and Catarman in 1975. The historical vicissitudes of the Diocese of Calbayog cannot be fully appreciated apart from the history of the early evangelical labors of the first missionaries who came to the island of Samar. The first Jesuit missionaries reached Leyte and Samar in 1595, the islands subsequently forming part of the Diocese of Cebu until erected into a separate diocese on 10 April 1910. The first bishop was Pablo Singzon de la Anunciacion.

It was transferred to the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Palo, which was promoted to a Metropolitan Archdiocese on November 15, 1982.

1. Pablo Singzon de la Anunciacion † (12 April 1910 Appointed - 9 Aug. 1920 Died)
2. Sofronio Hacbang y Gaborni † (22 Feb. 1923 Appointed - 3 April 1937 Died)
3. Miguel Acebedo y Flores † (16 Dec 1937 Appointed - 25 July 1958 Died)
4. Manuel P. Del Rosario † (25 July 1958 Succeeded - 11 Dec. 1961 Appointed, Bishop of Malolos)
5. Cipriano Urgel y Villahermosa † (22 Mar 1962 Appointed - 12 April 1973 Appointed, Bishop of Palo)
6. Ricardo Pido Tancinco (8 March 1974 Appointed - 21 April 1979 Resigned)
7. Sincero Barcenilla Lucero † (10 Dec. 1979 Appointed - 11 Oct. 1984 Resigned)
8. Maximiano Tuazon Cruz (20 Dec. 1994 Appointed - 13 Jan. 1999 Retired)
9. Jose S. Palma (13 Jan 1999 Appointed - 18 March 2006 Appointed, Archbishop of Palo)
10. Isabelo Caiban Abarquez (5 Jan. 2007 Appointed - present)

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Missing or empty |title= (help) Sámar and Leyte
• GCatholic.org, with episcopal incumbent biographies

• diocesan website, in English