FILADELFIA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - A city of the State of Pennsylvania and seat of a metropolitan archdiocese having as suffragans the dioceses of Altoona, Erie,
Harrisburg, Pittsburg and Scranton. The territory of the archdiocese extends over 10 counties of the same
State with an area of about 13,150 sq. km.
In 1948, out of a population of 3,721,786 inhabitants, there were 1,011,064 Catholics divided into 398 parishes and 59 missions and 9 chapels, under the direction of 1,207 secular priests and 503 religious, with a diocesan seminary,
6 colleges and academies, 55 High Schools with about 35 thousand pupils, and 295 parochial schools; in 1946 there were 3,644
conversions.
There are furthermore 44 male religious communities and 439 female ones. F. has an auxiliary bishop; the patroness of the diocese is the Immaculate Conception. Founded in 1682 by William Penn, Pennsylvania became the refuge of Catholics persecuted in the neighboring English colonies. The first public chapel there was built in 1720 by the Jesuit Giuseppe Grenton. In 1763 the first Catholic church of F. was opened to the public, and at the end of the War of Independence the first school was also inaugurated. German emigrants, assisted by priests of their own nationality from 1741 onward, obtained a church of their own in 1765. The
Augustinians opened a house of their Order there in 1801.
On 8 Apr. 1808 all of Pennsylvania and Delaware together with the west and south of New Jersey were erected into a diocese with its seat at F. The first bishop was Msgr. M. Egan (d. in
1814). In 1843 the territory of the diocese was dismembered with the creation of the new diocese of Pittsburg.
On 12 Febr. 1875 F. was elevated to a metropolis. Patrons of the archdiocese: the Immaculate Conception (8 Dec.) and the apostles Peter and Paul (29 June). The archdiocese was solemnly consecrated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on 15 Oct. 1875.
Bibliography
Loughlin, Philadelphia, in Cath. Enc., XI, pp. 793-96; D. C.
Shearer, Pontificia americana... (1784-1884), Washington 1933, v. indice; J. Garrahan, The Jesuits of the middle United States,
Nuova York 1938, passim: The official catholic directory for 1941,
Nuova York 1947, part. 2°, pp. 222-44.
Corrado Marin
PHILADELPHIA, ARCHDIOCESE of - The bell of liberty that was rung for the declaration of independence in 1776.
Philadelphia. Independence Hall.
It was also called "Little Athens." It is among the seven churches addressed in the Apocalypse (1:11). In the letter directed to the "angel of the church of F." (Rev. 3:7-13) we find only praise: the small Christian community resisted well the Jewish persecutions of the "synagogue of Satan" (3:9).
St. Ignatius of Antioch also warns the Philadelphians against the Jews (Ad Philad., 6). The Constitutiones apostol. (VII, 46: PG 1, 1953) claim that the first bishop of F., Demetrius, was sent by St. Peter.
Among the first faithful of F. a prophetess by the name of Ammia is remembered (Miltiades, in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., 5, 17: PG 20, 473).
It was the last city of the Byzantine empire in Anatolia to fall to the Turks. Conquered by Bayezid in 1390, it was called Alasehir (shining city). At present it has about 30,000 inhabitants.
Bibliography3 works
Pietro De Ambrogi