**AYACUCHO, Diocese of.** — In the Republic of Peru, department of Ayacucho, a suffragan see of Cuzco. It extends over the southern part of Peru, between the ancient city of Cuzco and the Pacific Ocean, with a population of 553,255 souls, divided into 63 parishes, served by 63 diocesan priests. It was erected on 20 July 1609 by Paul V, by the bull *Divinae Maiestatis arbitrio*, through the division of the diocese of Cuzco. For more than two centuries it was called Huamanaga; in 1837, under the pontificate of Gregory XVI, after the residential city had assumed the name of Ayacucho (1834) following the famous battle of the “American nations,” the diocese also took its present name. From its foundation to the present day, it has been administered by 30 bishops. Four synods have been celebrated, in the years 1672, 1906, 1912, and 1918; the last three by the same bishop, Msgr. Olivas Escudero, who governed the diocese for forty years and was, without doubt, one of its most distinguished pastors.
Ayacucho is the Peruvian city in which the most extensive traces of Spanish piety and splendor remain. Among the churches, it suffices to mention: St. Christopher (1541), St. Clare (1568), and the cathedral (1632). Many churches had a convent or religious house attached, now all suppressed except the monastery of St. Clare, which has given to the Church of Peru venerable servants of God, and that of the Carmelites. Recently, the Franciscans have built a convent (1898) and the Redemptorists have opened a house (1913). In the ancient city of Huancavelica, during colonial times, there existed the convents of St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Augustine, St. John of God, and a Jesuit college, now all suppressed. During the episcopate of Msgr. Cristóbal Castillo y Zamora, the ninth bishop of Ayacucho, the University of St. Christopher was founded (1677), which, inaugurated in 1704, carried on good cultural activity until 1878. Also in 1677, a Jesuit college was founded, which soon rose to great fame, having been elevated to the rank of university, with the privileges of the most celebrated Spanish universities. In 1768, the building of this Jesuit college, after the Jesuits had been expelled from the Spanish colonies (1767), was occupied by the seminary of St. Christopher, founded in 1680.
**
**AYGLIER (AILIER), BERNARD**: V. AGELIO.