MADRAS, ARCHDIOCESE of. — It is situated in the southeastern part of India and entrusted to the Pious Society of St. John Bosco. It initially formed part of the diocese of St. Thomas of Meliapore, detached in 1606 from the archdiocese of Goa. The first attempts to evangelize the Telegu in Chandragiri and Vellore date back to the beginning of the seventeenth century and were undertaken by two Italian Jesuits, Fathers Francesco Ricci (1601) and Antonio Rubino (1607), later martyred in Japan. The kingdoms of Vellore and Golconda, together with half of that of Gingi, subsequently came to constitute, from 1640 to 1688, the Carnate mission, which was detached from the Madure mission in 1704 and entrusted to the Jesuits expelled from Siam. Other religious Orders also contributed to the development of the mission, such as the Theatines, Carmelites, and Capuchins.
After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit missionaries, almost all of whom remained at their posts, were for the most part affiliated with the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris, which was entrusted with this mission in 1776. Various circumstances and a jurisdictional conflict with the Ordinary of Goa ultimately prompted the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda to conduct an apostolic visitation, after which a vicariate apostolic was created in M. in 1831, and then definitively erected on 25 April 1834 and entrusted to the Hermits of St. Augustine, who were joined by Irish secular priests. In 1875 several missionaries of the Mill Hill Society arrived among the Telegu. In September 1886 the vicariate apostolic was elevated to the archdiocese of M., constituted as a metropolitan see with Vizagapatam and Hyderabad as suffragans on 7 June 1887. The territory underwent several boundary changes, especially as a result of the erection of new missionary jurisdictions.
The diocese currently has 7 suffragan dioceses: Bellary, Bezwada, Cuttack, Guntur, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Nellore, Vizagapatam, and the apostolic prefecture of Jabalpur. It borders St. Thomas of Meliapore, Pondicherry, Salem, Bangalore, and Nellore. Over an area of 16,340 sq. km., it has 4,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 70,040 are Catholics, distributed among 41 parishes and more than 1,800 primary and secondary stations, served by 38 diocesan priests and 66 religious, assisted by 7 male and 19 female religious congregations.
It also publishes newspapers and periodicals in English and Tamil. Pious associations and Catholic Action are flourishing.