Spain

(1 Macc 8:3; Rom 15:24-28). In antiquity this name denoted the entire Iberian or Pyrenean Peninsula, together with Portugal; among other things, it abounded in silver and gold mines. On the north it is bounded by the Pyrenees, which separate it from France, and on every other side it is surrounded by water. It is separated from Africa only by the Strait of Gibraltar. The name of this country occurs only three times in Holy Scripture, although there are good grounds for thinking that the celebrated ancient city of Tarshish, to which Phoenician and Hebrew ships sailed even in Solomon's time, was located in Spain.

In his Epistle to the Romans, the holy apostle Paul expresses his intention to visit Spain and promises to travel from there to Rome; whether this desire was fulfilled is not evident from Holy Scripture, although St. Clement of Rome testifies that the apostle reached the farthest limits of the West, and consequently Spain, which the ancients called the end of the earth (Finis terrae). It may therefore be supposed that Christianity in Spain was first planted by the holy apostle Paul.