MÉRIDA, Archdiocese of. - Archdiocese and capital of the state of the same name in Venezuela (South America), situated in the north-western 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 regulars; it has a seminary, 5 male religious communities and 15 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 269).
The diocese was created on 17 February 1777, under the name of M. de Maracaybo, but it received its first bishop only in 1782, and in 1804 it became a suffragan of Santiago de Venezuela. The cathedral chapter was established in 1792. On 12 October 1922 Pope Pius XI, by the apostolic constitution Ad mania, detached from the diocese of M. 24 parishes to form the new diocese of S. Cristoforo (AAS, 15 [1923], pp. 99-102); and on 1 June 1923, by the apostolic constitution Interpræcipitos, he raised it to the rank and dignity of a metropolitan see, assigning to it as suffragans the dioceses of Zulia and of S. Cristoforo di Venezuela (AAS, 15 [1923], pp. 533-35).
The first bishop of the diocese was Giovanni Ramos de Lora, a Franciscan (1782-93), who was succeeded by Emanuele Candid de Torryos, a Dominican (1793-94). Of the more recent ones, mention is made of: Antonio R. Silva, who governed that church for 33 years (1894-1927), and the present Acacio Chacón, who has governed it for 24.
The patroness of the diocese is the Immaculate Conception.
Bibliography
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti