PHILADELPHIA, ARCHDIOCESE OF — City of the State of Pennsylvania and see of a metropolitan archdiocese having as its suffragans the dioceses of Altoona, Erie, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton. The territory of the archdiocese extends over 10 counties of the same State, covering an area of approximately 13,150 sq km.
In 1948, with 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 diocesan priests and 503 religious, with one diocesan seminary, 6 colleges and academies, 55 high schools with 35,000 pupils, and 295 parochial schools; in 1946 there were 3,644 conversions.
There are also 44 male religious communities and 430 female ones. Philadelphia has an auxiliary bishop and the Immaculate Conception as patroness of the diocese. Founded in 1682 by William Penn, Pennsylvania became a refuge for Catholics persecuted in the neighboring English colonies. The first public chapel was built there in 1720 by the Jesuit Giuseppe Gretton. In 1763 the first Catholic church in Philadelphia was opened to the public, and at the end of the War of Independence the first school was also inaugurated. The German emigrants, assisted by priests of their own nationality since 1741, had their own church in 1763. The Augustinians opened a house of their Order there in 1801. On 8 April 1808, all of Pennsylvania and Delaware, together with the west and south of New Jersey, were erected into a diocese with its see at Philadelphia. The first bishop was Mgr. M. Egan (d. 1814). In 1843 the territory of the diocese was divided with the creation of the new Diocese of Pittsburgh.
On 12 February 1875 Philadelphia was elevated to a metropolitan see. Patrons of the archdiocese: the Immaculate Conception (8 December) and the Apostles Peter and Paul (29 June). The archdiocese was solemnly consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on 15 October 1873.