Zepeda y Zepeda, Juan de Jesús (1808–1885)

Juan de Jesús Zepeda y Zepeda (b. 20 November 1808; d. 20 April 1885), bishop of Comayagua, Honduras (1861–1885). Zepeda was born in San Antonio de Oriente and ordained a Franciscan priest in 1832. He became Guatemalan auxiliary bishop in 1859 and in 1861 was named bishop of Comayagua, where he soon distinguished himself as a friend of the needy and as a peacemaker. When Liberal President Marco Aurelio Soto initiated anticlerical legislation in 1879–1880, Zepeda, in poor health, complained but promised not to resist if the state provided funds to partly compensate for the loss of the tithe. Soto evidently complied, but when Luis Bográn Baraona became president in 1883, the church was treated more harshly. Financially weakened, it was unable to carry out even basic programs. Consequently, its role in Honduran society was reduced.

See alsoAnticlericalism; Soto, Marco Aurelio.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ernesto Fiallos, Bosquejo biográfico del exmo. y. rmo. mons. Dr. Fray Juan de Jesús Zepeda y Zepeda (1938).

José María Tojeira, Panorama histórico de la iglesia en Honduras (1986), pp. 138-152.

Additional Bibliography

Carías, Marcos. La Iglesia Católica en Honduras, 1492–1975. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Editorial Guaymuras, 1991.

Flores Andino, Francisco A. Presencia histórica franciscana en Honduras del siglo XVI al siglo XX. Honduras: F.A. Flores Andino, 1992.

Sierra Fonseca, Rolando. Iglesia y liberalismo en Honduras en el siglo XIX. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Centro de Publicaciones Obispado Choluteca, 1993.

                                         Edward T. Brett