COLOMBO IN CEYLON, ARCIDIOCESI of. — The evangelization of the island of Ceylon was begun by the Franciscans in 1517. Ecclesiastically, the island depended on the bishop of Goa (India); in 1558 it was placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Cochin, a diocese suffragan to Goa. After many vicissitudes, on 3 December 1834 the apostolic vicariate of Ceylon was erected, with its see at C. On 7 February 1845, the division of the apostolic vicariate of Ceylon into those of C. and Jaffna was decided. From the apostolic vicariate of C., that of Kandy was detached on 2 April 1883, and on 1 October 1884 C. was definitively exempted from the metropolitan jurisdiction of Goa.
By virtue of Leo XIII’s constitution Humanae salutis Auctor (1 September 1886), C. was declared an archiepiscopal see and, the following year, a metropolitan see. It currently has 5 suffragan dioceses: Chilaw, Galle, Jaffna, Kandy and Trincomalee. It is entrusted to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It has an area of 3,988 sq. km and comprises the entire Western Province, one of the 9 provinces of Ceylon. The population is approximately 1,400,000, of whom 70% are Buddhists, 100,000 Muslims and an equal number Hindus, and 40,000 Protestants; the Catholics number 240,000, 90% belonging to the Sinhalese stock and 10% to the Tamil. There are 120 priests of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, half European and half indigenous, and 30 secular priests, almost all Ceylonese. The major seminary has about fifty students, 14 of whom are religious; 60 young men study in the minor seminary. The brothers, who belong to 3 different institutes, number nearly one hundred. There are approximately 800 sisters, of whom as many as 500 are indigenous.
The number of diocesan elementary, secondary, industrial and normal schools is impressive; more than 50,000 young people of both sexes, two-thirds of them Catholics, are educated there.
Charitable works are also flourishing, with day nurseries and orphanages. Two printing presses publish, among other things, 5 Catholic periodicals. The confraternities, pious associations and Catholic Action organizations are prosperous and numerous.
Conversions, which have declined in recent years because of the strong opposition of the Buddhists, remain above an annual average of 18 baptisms for each priest.