Santiago Manuel de Alday y Aspée (1712, Concepción – 1789,

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 ...

) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. He served as Bishop of Santiago from 1755 to 1788. He is considered the most important bishops of Santiago during the eighteenth century.

Moral diatribes

Alday is best remembered for his frequent

polemics Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...

issues, and campaigned against particular aspects of women's fashion at the time –such as short skirts reaching down to the calf of the leg or very short sleeves. He also opposed the opening of the theater in Santiago; he claimed that attending comedies there was a

mortal sin A mortal sin (), in Christian theology, is a gravely sinful act which can lead to damnation if a person does not repent of the sin before death. It is alternatively called deadly, grave, and serious; the concept of mortal sin is found in both ...

. He also condemned the game known as ''palín'' or ''chueca'', a form of

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Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

origin, as well as the thick winter clothes worn by some clerics during cold weather, and the use of the

sacramental bread Sacramental bread, also called Communion bread, Communion wafer, Sacred host, Eucharistic bread, the Lamb or simply the host (), is the bread used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist. Along with sacramental wine, it is one of two elements ...

by some people as a

sealing wax Sealing wax is a wax material of a seal (emblem), seal which, after melting, hardens quickly (to paper, parchment, ribbons and wire, and other material), forming a bond that is difficult to break without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify ...

on letters. Alday, in a famous pastoral letter about women's fashions, ordered in 1782 that "...all women of whatever station or class extend the length of their clothes, employing round petticoats or half circle shaped skirts both inside and outside of their homes in a manner that reaches their ankles… and also, in the same manner, that women cover their arms up to the mid-point between the elbow and the wrist every time they leave the home or when they receive visitors at their home."

Administrative work

In 1780, Alday revitalized the building program associated with the Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, placing the program in the hands of the architect

Joaquín Toesca Gioacchino Toesca e Ricci (1745–1799; known as Joaquín Toesca in the Spanish Empire) was an Italian architect who worked at the service of the Spanish Empire, mainly in Chile. He was mainly a Neoclassical architect although he also built Baroq ...

. Alday was also concerned with the building of new churches in

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, including the third church built in the Marian sanctuary of

Andacollo Andacollo (, from quechua a''nta,'' copper, gold; ''coya,'' queen) is a city and commune in the Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile. It is the central town of a mining district dominated by medium-scale mining. There are gold placers and ...

as well as the completion and consecration of the principal church in

Mendoza, Argentina Mendoza (), officially the City of Mendoza (), is the capital of the Provinces of Argentina, province of Mendoza Province, Mendoza in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plain ...

, in 1760. Alday founded new parishes as he traveled across his extensive diocese, visiting, for example,

Copiapó Copiapó () is a List of cities in Chile, city and communes of Chile, commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal List of towns in Chile, town of Caldera, Chile, Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capi ...

and Cuyo. He founded

San Lázaro San Lázaro is a town in the Concepción department of Paraguay. Located 660 km from Asunción and 190 km from departmental capital Concepción, its population was 9060 in 2002. Located at the confluence of rivers Paraguay and Apa. Th ...

(1775) in the suburbs of Santiago, and parishes in more distant areas, such as

Paredones Paredones is a Chilean town and commune in Cardenal Caro Province, O'Higgins Region. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Paredones spans an area of and has 6,695 inhabitants (3,562 men and 3,133 wome ...

(1765),

Combarbalá Combarbalá is the capital city of the Communes of Chile, commune of Combarbala. It is located in the Limarí Province, Coquimbo Region, Region of Coquimbo, at an elevation of 900 m (2,952 ft). It is known for the tourist astronomic o ...

(1757), Pelarco (1787) and

Renca Renca is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It was founded on 6 May 1894. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Renca spans an area of and has 133,500 inha ...

(1764). He organized a diocesan

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in 1763, hoping to enact clerical reforms and discuss the immoral customs of his flock.

Theological work

He received a good education, receiving a doctorate in Law at the University of San Marcos de Lima. He possessed one of the largest libraries in Chile during the

colonial era Colonial period (a period in a country's history where it was subject to management by a colonial power) may refer to: Continents *European colonization of the Americas * Colonisation of Africa * Western imperialism in Asia Countries * Col ...

of 2,058 volumes, which today is conserved in the Museum of Carmen de Maipú. He wrote various treatises and participated in a discussion on

Probabilism In theology and philosophy, probabilism (from Latin ''probare'', to test, approve) is an ancient Greek doctrine of academic skepticism. It holds that in the absence of certainty, plausibility or truth-likeness is the best criterion. The term can ...

, in the synod of

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

of 1772, in which he opposed this philosophy. He was a major participant in this synod.

Works

* ''Regla de la gloriosa virgen Santa Clara: según la observan las religiosas, que no son descalzas, aprobados por la santidad de Urbano IV'' (1773) * ''Visitatio ad limina apostolorum Illmi. D. D. Emmanuelis de Alday Episcopi Chilensis, Catholicae Majestatis à Consiliis'' (1763) * ''Synodo discesana'' (1763) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alday Y Aspee, Santiago Manuel De 18th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Chile Roman Catholic bishops of Santiago de Chile 1712 births 1789 deaths People from Concepción, Chile