**MANAGUA**, archdiocese of. - Capital city of the archdiocese in Nicaragua (Central America).
It extends over 5,000 sq. km. with a population of 1,202,866 inhabitants, of whom 1,142,622 are Catholics, distributed in 14 parishes served by 27 diocesan priests and 22 religious (*Annuario Pontificio*, 1951, p. 262).
The diocese was created on 26 Feb. 1531 under the name of Nicaragua and elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Pius X through a decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation on 20 Oct. 1913, removing it from the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Guatemala and assigning it jurisdiction over the five departments of M., Masaya, Carazo, Matagalpa, and Jiquipayan. On the same date, the dioceses of Granada and León were assigned to M. as suffragans. Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution *Animarum salutis* of 19 Dec. 1924, dismembered the departments of Matagalpa and Jiquipayan from the archdiocese of M., erecting the diocese of Matagalpa as a suffragan of M.
**The cathedral is dedicated to St. Stephen.**
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