GRENADA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Metropolitan church in southern Andalusia, with the bishoprics of Almería, Cartagena, Guadix, Jaén and Málaga as suffragans. It has an area of 8,448 sq km with 682,000 inhabitants, of whom 680,000 are Catholics. It has 246 parishes served by 325 diocesan priests and 97 regulars, 13 male religious communities and 93 female ones (1949). The Seminary was enriched by its founders and generously endowed by Charles V; then by Leo XIII it was erected into a pontifical university with the usual three faculties. Mention should also be made of the distinguished College-Seminary of the Holy Mount founded in 1610.
Its foundation in the 1st century by St. Cecilio is legendary, but at the Council of Elvira (ca. 300) we find its bishop present. The diocese was suppressed in the 8th century with the Mohammedan invasion, and rose again in 1492 with the conquest of the city by the sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella, and by virtue of the bull of Innocent VIII it was erected into a metropolis. In 1523 the construction of the Cathedral began with a Gothic plan, which was later modified with Baroque and Renaissance elements and enriched by magnificent paintings by Alonso Cano (also the author of the graceful façade and of several statues), Juan de Sevilla and other masters. Next to the Cathedral there are two famous funerary chapels: one contains the artistic royal tomb of the aforementioned Ferdinand and Isabella; in the other is laid the valiant F. Pérez del Pulgar, who during the siege of the city entered alone and nailed to the main mosque a parchment with the words « Ave Maria », also setting fire to the nearby Alcacería. In the sacristy there are relics of great value, in the archives precious codices and a rich collection of choir books. The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Cecilio and to Our Lady of Anguish and has enjoyed for many centuries the title of « apostolic » and its Chapter that of « excellence ». - See plate LXXV.
