MORELLA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - A city and archdiocese in the State of Michoacán in Mexico. It covers an area of 30,000 sq. km. with a population of 1,300,000, of whom 1,100,000 are Catholics, distributed in 126 parishes, served by 191 diocesan priests and 80 religious, a diocesan seminary, 41 male and 83 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 278).
Pope Paul III, at the request of Emperor Charles V, established the diocese of Michoacán on 11 Nov. 1536; the first bishop was the missionary monsignor Vasco de Quiroga (1538–65), with his see at Zintzuntzan until 1544, then at Pátzcuaro until 1580, and thence at Valladolid. Among his successors are to be remembered monsignor Ramírez del Prado for his apostolic zeal; monsignor Sánchez de Tagle, founder of the seminary in 1770; Antonio de San Miguel, who built the great aqueduct; Portugal, who was the first American created cardinal, though he died before receiving the red hat. Pope Pius IX elevated the diocese to a metropolitan see on 19 Mar. 1863, assigning as its suffragans the dioceses of León, Querétaro, and Zamora; the first archbishop was monsignor C. Munguía (d. 1868); in 1913 Pope Pius X added Tacámbaro. Pope Pius XI, by an apostolic letter of 25 June 1924, raised the collegiate church of St. Mary of Health in the city of Pátzcuaro to the rank of a minor basilica, 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 Morelia, with its seat there, on 22 Nov. 1924.