Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

José Antonio Martínez de Aldunate y Garcés de Marcilla (December 21, 1731 – April 8, 1811) was a Chilean Bishop and member of the First Government Junta of Chile. He was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, the son of José Martínez de Aldunate Barahona and Rosa Josefa Garcés de Marcilla y Molina. He carried out his first studies in the "Convictorio de San Francisco Javier", and graduated from the Real Universidad de San Felipe, where he obtained doctorates in both types of law (Civil and Canonic). At an unspecified later date, he was ordained as a priest in Santiago, where he later became Provisor and General Vicar. In 1758, he was named Cathedral Dean. He also became the Rector of the University. In 1804, Pope

Pius VII Pope Pius VII (; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823) was head of the Catholic Church from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. He ruled the Papal States from June 1800 to 17 May 1809 and again ...

named him Bishop of Huamanga,

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, to replace Bishop Francisco de Matienzo y Rivero. He was consecrated by

Francisco José Marán Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...

, Bishop of Santiago, before travelling to Perú. Five years later, the Regency council promoted him to Bishop of Santiago, being replaced in Huamanga by Bishop José Vicente Silva. The year 1810 was very complicated politically for the Spanish empire in general, and for Chile in particular. Two years before, the King

Ferdinand VII Ferdinand VII (; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was King of Spain during the early 19th century. He reigned briefly in 1808 and then again from 1813 to his death in 1833. Before 1813 he was known as ''el Deseado'' (the Desired), and af ...

had been imprisoned in France. In Chile, the Royal Governor Francisco Antonio García Carrasco had been forced to resign due to his ineptitude and corruption, and had been replaced by Mateo de Toro y Zambrano. After Mateo de Toro y Zambrano took over as Royal Governor, he was convinced to call an open meeting of the leading citizens of the city to decide the political future of the colony. He convened such a meeting for the morning of September 18, 1810. The discussion ended with the conformation of the First Government Junta of Chile, of which Bishop Martínez de Aldunate was voted the Vice President. His death in

, less than a year later (he was already 79 years old) precluded him from taking a larger role in the independence of Chile.

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Basic Biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez de Aldunate, Jose 1731 births 1811 deaths People of the Chilean War of Independence 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Chile Roman Catholic bishops of Ayacucho Roman Catholic bishops of Santiago de Chile

See also

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