Francisco García Diego y Moreno

Francisco García Diego y Moreno (17 September 1785 – 30 April 1846) was a Spanish Catholic prelate who served as the first Bishop of the Californias.

Early episcopal appointments In 1801, he received the habit of Francis at the missionary College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas, made his vows the following year and was ordained a priest at Monterrey, Nuevo León, 14 Nov 1808. For the next twenty years Father Diego was mainly occupied in preaching missions, and during this period compiled a small work, Metodo de Misionar, or "Method for Giving Missions". From 1816 to 1819 he was master of novices, in 1822 he was made discretos, and in February 1832, guardian or superior of the missionary college.

Governmental influence The Mexican government, which had resolved to expel all Spanish friars from Alta California, in April 1832, requested that the college send eleven native Mexican Franciscans members to California. Father Diego went as the commissary. They reached Cabo San Lucas in September 1832, and Monterey, the capital, in February 1833. The Guadalupan friars took charge of the missions from San Antonio to Sonoma. On 6 March, Father Diego chose Mission Santa Clara for his field of labor.

Creation of diocese He remained here until the end of 1835, when he visited Mexico to induce the government to have a bishop appointed, in order to preserve the Church in California. On 19 Sep 1836, the Mexican government decided to petition the pope to create California a bishopric and congress at the same time decreed to pay the new bishop an annual salary of $6,000 until the diocese should have a sufficient income. Of the three candidates proposed by the metropolitan chapter on 22 June 1839, the Mexican government on 6 April 1840, recommended Father Francisco Garcia Diego.

On 27 April Pope Gregory XVI withdrew California from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Sonora, and at the same time appointed Father Diego first Bishop of Upper and Lower California with the see at Mission San Diego de Alcalá.

Consecration as first diocesan bishop Diego was consecrated at the Franciscan church of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, on 4 October 1840, and on 11 December 1841, landed at San Diego. Owing to the poverty and insignificance of the place, he removed his residence to Mission Santa Barbara A marker at the Los Angeles Cathedral implies he is still buried at the Santa Barbara Mission.