Arequipa, Archdiocese of

AREQUIPA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The city of Arequipa is located in southern Peru, at 2,320 meters above sea level, at the foot of the Misti volcano and only 90 km. in a straight line from the coast. It is the capital of the department of the same name (56,857 sq. km.). The diocese extends over an area of 103,800 sq. km., including, besides the department of A., also that of Tacna and the coastal province of Moquegua, with a population of 300,000 inhabitants, divided into 88 parishes.

It was erected by Gregory XIII on 15 April 1577, at the request of Philip II, who wanted two dioceses in Peru under royal patronage. The bull of erection was not executed, and on 20 July 1609 Paul V published a second one. Pius XII, with the bull Inter praecipuas, on 23 March 1943 raised it to archiepiscopal see. The diocese also included, until 1929, the Chilean province of Arica, but an apostolic constitution of 20 Dec. of that year incorporated the said province into the new Chilean diocese of Iquique. A. possesses, besides the seminary of St. Jerome, several convents and numerous churches. The Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. In A. there flourished, from the end of the 1500s, a renowned college of Jesuits, until the expulsion of these religious from the Spanish colonies (1767).

Pietro Gómez