COLOMBO IN CEYLON, Archdiocese of. - The evangelization of the island of Ceylon was begun by the Franciscans in 1517. The island was ecclesiastically dependent on the Bishop of Goa (India); in 1558 it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cochin, a suffragan diocese of Goa. After many changes, on 3 December 1834 the Apostolic Vicariate of Ceylon was erected with its seat in Colombo. On 7 February 1845 it was decided to divide the Apostolic Vicariate of Ceylon into those of Colombo and Jaffna. From the Apostolic Vicariate of Colombo there was detached, on 2 April 1883, that of Kandy, and on 1 October 1884 Colombo was definitively exempt from the metropolitan jurisdiction of Goa.
With the constitution of Leo XIII Humanae salutis Auctor (1 September 1886), Colombo was declared an archiepiscopal see and then, the following year, a metropolitan see. At present it has five suffragan dioceses: Chilaw, Galle, Jaffna, Kandy, and Trincomalee. It is entrusted to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, covers an area of 3,988 sq. km., and comprises the entire Western Province, which is one of the nine provinces of Ceylon. The population is approximately 1,400,000, of whom 70% are Buddhists, 100,000 are Muslims and as many Hindus, 40,000 are Protestants; the Catholics number 240,000, 90% of whom belong to the Sinhalese race and 10% to the Tamil race. 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, of whom fourteen are religious; sixty young men study in the minor seminary. The brothers, belonging to three different institutes, number nearly one hundred. The sisters number about 800, of whom three hundred are indigenous.
The number of diocesan schools—elementary, secondary, industrial, and normal—is impressive; over 50,000 young people of both sexes, two-thirds of them Catholics, receive education in them.
Charitable works are also flourishing, with orphanages and asylums. Two printing houses publish, among other things, five Catholic periodicals. The confraternities, associations, and Catholic Action groups are numerous and prosperous.
Conversions, which have decreased in recent years due to strong opposition from Buddhists, maintain an annual average of eighteen baptisms for every priest.