Francisco Gainza

Francisco Caracciolo Urreta Visayas de Gainza (3 June 1818 – 31 July 1879) was the 25th bishop of the Diocese of Cáceres. He was born in the city of Calahorra, in the province of Logroño, Spain.

He studied in the Philippines and lived in Manila. In Manila, he was a professor at the Colegio of Santo Tomas. Gaínza and his friend, Father Pedro Peláez from Laguna, were leaders of the secularization movement, seeking reforms within the Catholic Church to respect the rights of the secular clergy, who were mostly natives, in parishes. Together with Peláez, in 1861, he founded El Católico Filipino, the first Catholic newspaper in the Philippines.

On September 1, 1864, Gainza initiated the Traslación Procession on the Friday before the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, where the image was brought from the Our Lady of Peñafrancia Shrine to the cathedral for a solemn novena, starting the Peñafrancia festival.

Books and publications (1849) (1851) (1858) (1860) (1863) (1864) (1865) (1865) (1867) (1868) (1873) (1877) (1885) (1886)