y are also the patron saints of Calahorra.

The first Bishop of Calahorra took possession of his see toward the
middle of the fifth century; his name was Silvano. Unluckily, he was the
only one whose name is known to-day, and yet it has been proven that
when the Moors invaded the country two or three hundred years later, the
see was removed to Oviedo, later to Alava (near Vitoria, where no
remains of a cathedral church are to be seen to-day), and in the tenth
century to Najera. One hundred years later, when the King of Navarra,
Don Garcia, conquered the Arab fortress at Calahorra, the wandering see
was once more firmly chained down to the original spot of its creation
(1030; the first bishop _de modernis_ being Don Sancho).

Near by, and in a vale leading to the south from the Ebro, the Moors
built a fortress and called it Najera. Conquered by the early kings of
Navarra, it was raised to the dignity of one of the cathedral towns of
the country; from 950 (first bishop, Theodomio) to 1030 ten bishops held
their court here, that is, until the see was removed to Calahorra. Since
then, and especially after the conquest of Rioja by Alfonso VI. of
Castile, the city's significance died out completely, and to-day it is
but a shadow of what it previously had been, or better still, it is an
ignored village among ruins.

Still further west, and likewise situated in a vale to the south of the
Ebro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada ranks as the third city. Originally
its parish was but a suffragan church of Calahorra, but in 1227 it was
raised to an episcopal see. Quite recently, in the beginning of the
nineteenth century, when church funds were no longer what they had been,
only one bishop was appointed to both sees, with an alternative
residence in either of the two, that is to say, one prelate resided in
Calahorra, his successor in Santo Domingo, and so forth and so on. Since
1850, however, both villages--for they are cities in name only--have
lost all right to a bishop, the see having been definitely removed to
Logrono, or it will be removed there as soon as the present bishop dies.
But he has a long life, the present bishop!

The origin of Santo Domingo is purely religious. In the eleventh and
twelfth centuries a pious individual lived in the neighbourhood whose
life-work and ambition it was to facilitate the travelling pilgrims to
Santiago in Galicia. He served as guide, kept a road open in winter and
summer, and even built bridg