Herrán y Zaldúa, Antonio Saturnino (1797–1868)

Antonio Saturnino Herrán y Zaldúa (b. 11 February 1797; d. 7 February 1868), Colombian prelate. Born in Honda, Tolima, Herrán studied in Bogotá, where he received his doctorate in law. He was ordained in 1821, then served in various parishes around and in Bogotá until 1830, when he became a canon of the Bogotá cathedral. In 1833 he assisted in the escape of General José Sardá, a conspirator against President Francisco de Paula Santander. By 1840 Herrán was vicar general of Bogotá and a close associate of Archbishop Manuel José Mosquera. As second in command of the archdiocese, he became enmeshed in the church—state conflict during the presidency of José Hilario López (1849–1853). In October 1852 he was imprisoned by the government. The exile of Mosquera left him in charge of the archdiocese from 1853 to 1854, and he was elected its archbishop in January 1856. Herrán devoted his time (unsuccessfully) to re-creating his predecessor's reforms and to forming groups to aid the needy. The virulence of Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera's anti-clericalism (1861–1863) brought rupture with the church. Herrán was exiled to Cartagena (1861–1864), was back in favor (1864–1866) during Manuel Murillo Toro's presidency, then had to deal again with Mosquera's ill will (1866–1867). He died in Villeta, about forty miles from Bogotá.

See alsoSantander, Francisco de Paula; Sardá, José.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

José María Samper, Galería nacional de hombres ilustres o notables, o sea colección de bocetos biográficos (1879), pp. 227-240.

José Restrepo Posada, "Illmo. Señor Don Antonio Herrán y Zaldúa …," in Arquidiócesis de Bogotá: Datos biográficos de sus prelados, vol. 2 (1963), pp. 325-525.

Gonzalo Uribe Villegas, Los arzobispos y obispos colombianos desde la colonia hasta nuestros días (1918), pp. 266-289.

Additional Bibliography

Guevara Cobos, Eduardo. Resistencia eclesiástica al proyecto liberal en el estado soberano de Santander 1860–1886. Santander, Colombia: Escuela de Historia, Universidad Industrial de Santander, 2004.

López Rodríguez, Marta Helena, and Patricia Pinto Quintero. La iglesia católica y el estado en Colombia. Bogotá, D.E.: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Socioeconómicas, 1991.

Tirado Mejía, Alvaro. El estado y la política en el siglo XIX. Bogotá: El Ancora Editores, 2001.

                                      J. LeÓn Helguera