ANGELOPOLI, ARCHDIOCESE of. — This is the oldest diocese in Mexico, having been established by Clement VII with the bull Devotionis tuae on 13 October 1525. At first it had its see in Tlascala, whence it was transferred to Puebla de los Angeles in 1550. It was raised to archiepiscopal dignity in 1903. To date it has been governed by 32 bishops and 3 archbishops. The archdiocese is divided into 172 parishes. The clergy consists of 273 secular and 52 regular priests. The seminary is named after the celebrated bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who reorganized it around the middle of the seventeenth century.
The first to evangelize the region were the Franciscans, followed later by the Dominicans and the Jesuits. Among the numerous sanctuaries of the archdiocese (about twenty), that of Our Lady of Ocotlan, near the city of Tlascala, is of particular importance. Among the religious monuments, special mention should be made of: the convent of S. Barbara, in which s. Felipe de Jesús, the Franciscan protomartyr in Mexico, and fr. Vicente de S. José, later a martyr in Japan, lived; the chapels of the Rosary, in the church of S. Domenico, in the “chorrigueresque” style; the church of S. Francesco, which preserves the incorrupt body of the blessed Sebastian de Aparición, a Spanish Franciscan; the church of La Vera Cruz, in whose convent lived another celebrated Spanish Franciscan, fr. Toribio de Benavente, called Motolinia, greatly venerated by the Indians, for whom he was a great benefactor, defender, and historian; the church of the Holy Spirit, decorated by the celebrated Jesuit Carrasco; and the cathedral, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and raised by Pius X to the rank of minor basilica in 1910. This distinguished monument is in the Spanish Renaissance style, and its construction, begun in 1539, continued until 1641.
Suffragan dioceses of A. are: Huejutla, Huajuapan, Papantla; appellate ordinary: Mexico.