LOJA, DIOCESE of. - Diocese and capital of the province of the same name, a city in Ecuador.
It has an area of 20,000 sq. km., with a population of 180,000 inhabitants, of whom 176,400 are Catholics; it has 46 parishes served by 56 diocesan priests and 14 regulars, one seminary, 4 male and 14 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 252).
The city, situated in the Val de Canbamba, was founded in 1546, and in 1580 the first provincial Council was held there, since there was already at that time a parish church and communities of Franciscans and Dominicans. In 1861 L. had a college run by the Jesuits, and in 1865 Pope
Pio IX created the diocese of L.; its first bishop was Msgr. Checa, succeeded by Msgr. Riofrio, later archbishop of Quito; the third, Msgr. J. Masia, was exiled and died in Peru in 1902. He was followed in 1907 by Msgr. J. J. A. Eguiguren, who founded the preparatory school of the seminary, entrusting it to the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Among the churches, besides the cathedral, are remembered those of the Carmine, S. Giuseppe, S. Francesco, S. Domenico, and S. Sebastiano. The diocese is suffragan to Quito.