COLIMA, DIOCESI di. - In the Republic of Mexico, suffragan of Guadalajara, erected by Leo XIII on 11 Dec. 1896, by the constitution Si principum, through the dismemberment of the archdiocese of Guadalajara.
It comprises the State of C. and the southern part of the State of Jalisco, with an area of 26,816 sq. km., and a population, predominantly mestizo, of 260,000 inhabitants, of whom 259,000 are Catholics, divided among 30 parishes with 75 diocesan priests and a minor seminary. The episcopal see is C., capital of the State, founded in 1522 by Gonzalo de Sandoval under the name of S. Sebastián.
Notable buildings from the colonial period are: the convent and church of the Merced, the church de Jesús, the hospital de S. Juan de Dios; the Cathedral is the most notable religious building erected in the diocese at the end of the last century.
Toward the end of the 18th century, d. Hidalgo y Costilla, initiator of the movement for Mexico’s emancipation from Spain, was parish priest of C.