GUADALAJARA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - Archdiocese and city in the State of Jalisco, Mexico.
It has an area of 52,000 sq. km. and a population of 1,407,680 inhabitants, of whom 1,379,680 are Catholics; it has 128 parishes served by 632 secular priests and 64 regulars, two seminaries, 32 male and 130 female religious communities (1949).
The diocese was created by Paolo III on 13 July 1548 by being detached from the diocese of Michoacán; the bishop, however, resided at Compostella in the province of Tepic; Pio IV transferred it to G. in 1560.
Bishop F. Galindo y Chávez (d. 1702) founded the seminary in 1699 and established its library; Bishop A. Alcade, transferred from Yucatán to the see of G. in 1771, founded there the university and the hospital of S. Miguel de Belén. Pope Pio IX raised G. to an archdiocese on 19 March 1863; its suffragans are the dioceses of Aguas Calientes, Colima, Tepic, and Zacatecas.
The cathedral, dedicated to Maria S.ma Assunta in cielo, was begun in 1571, completed in 1618, and consecrated in 1716; in the sacristy there is an admired painting of the S.ma Vergine by Murillo.
To the west of the city, adjoining the seminary, stands the church of S. Monica, with its distinctive and sumptuous exterior. Other noteworthy churches are those of S. Francesco, with a Baroque façade and two domes (1550); the church of the Carmine, whose interior is decorated with allegories drawn from Holy Scripture; and also the churches of S. Filippo Neri and S. Agostino.
The city of G. was founded in Apr. 1530 by Cristobal
de Oñate, who called it Espiritu Santo, but in 1542 changed its name to G. because it was the native city of his companion Nuño de Guzmán.