MÉRIDA, ARCHDIOCESE of. — Archdiocese and capital of the Venezuelan state of the same name (South America), situated in the northwestern part of the state.
It has an area of 53,000 sq. km, with 455,000 inhabitants, of whom 454,000 are Catholics. It has 77 parishes, served by 65 diocesan priests and 24 religious priests; it has one seminary, 5 male and 15 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 269).
The diocese was created on 17 February 1777, under the name of M. de Maracaybo, but had its first bishop only in 1782; in 1804 it became a suffragan of Santiago of Venezuela. The cathedral Chapter was established in 1792. On 12 October 1922 Pope Pius XI, by the apostolic constitution Ad mania, detached 24 parishes from the diocese of M. in order to form the new diocese of S. Cristoforo (AAS, 15 [1923], pp. 99–102); and on 1 June 1923, by the apostolic constitution Interpræcipitos, raised it to the rank and dignity of a metropolitan church, assigning to it as suffragans the dioceses of Zulia and S. Cristoforo of Venezuela (AAS, 15 [1923], pp. 533–35).
The first bishop of the diocese was Giovanni Ramos de Lora, a Franciscan (1782–93), succeeded by Emanuele Candid de Torryos, a Dominican (1793–94). Among the more recent bishops are remembered: Antonio R. Silva, who governed that church for 33 years (1894–1927), and the current bishop, Acacio Chacón, who has governed it for 24 years.
The patroness of the diocese is the Immaculate Conception.
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti