MORELIA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in the State of Michoacán in Mexico. It has an area of 30,000 sq km with 1,300,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,100,000 are Catholics, distributed in 126 parishes, served by 151 diocesan priests and 80 regulars, a conciliar seminary, 41 male religious communities and 83 female (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 278).
Pope Paul III, at the request of Emperor Charles V, created the diocese of Michoacán on 11 Nov. 1536; the first bishop was the missionary Msgr. Vasco de Quiroga (1538-65), with his seat at Sintzuntzan until 1544, then at Pazcuaro until 1580, and from there at Valladolid; among his successors mention should be made of Msgr. Ramirez del Prado for his apostolic zeal; Msgr. Sanchez de Tagle, founder of the Seminary in 1770; Antonio de S. Miguel, who had the great aqueduct built; Portugal, who was the first American created cardinal, but who died before receiving the cardinal's hat. Pope Pius IX elevated the diocese to a metropolitan see on 19 March 1863, giving it as suffragans the dioceses of León, Queretaro and Zamora; the first archbishop was Msgr. C. Munguia (d. 1868); in 1913 Pope Pius X added Tacamboro to it. Pope Pius XI, by apostolic letter of 25 June 1924, elevated to a minor basilica the collegiate church of S. M. della Salute in the city of Pazcuaro, in which the image of the Blessed Virgin had been crowned with a golden crown by Pope Leo XIII in 1899 (AAS, 16 [1924], pp. 353-54). The name of the archdiocese was changed to that of M., with residence there, on 22 Nov. 1924.
Bibliography2 works
Enrico Josi