MORELIA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - City and archdiocese in the State of Michoacan, Mexico. It covers an area of 30,000 sq. km., with 1,300,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,100,000 are Catholics, distributed among 126 parishes, served by 151 diocesan priests and 80 regular clergy, with one diocesan seminary, 41 male religious communities, and 83 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 278).
At the request of Emperor Carlo V, Pope Paolo III created the diocese of Michoacan on 11 Nov. 1536; its first bishop was the missionary Msgr. Vasco de Quiroga (1538-65), whose see was at Sintzuntzan until 1544, then at Pazcuaro until 1580, and thence at Valladolid. Among his successors should be mentioned 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; and Portugal, who was the first American created cardinal, but who died before receiving the cardinal’s hat. Pope Pio IX raised the diocese to metropolitan status on 19 March 1863, assigning to it as suffragans the dioceses of León, Queretaro, and Zamora; its first archbishop was Msgr. C. Munguia (d. 1868); in 1913 Pope Pio X added Tacamboro to II. By apostolic letter of 25 June 1924, Pope Pio XI raised to the rank of minor basilica the collegiate church of S. M. della Salute in the city of Pazcuaro, where the image of the B. Vergine had been crowned with a golden crown by Pope Leone 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.