POPAYÁN, ARCHDIOCESE of. - City and archdiocese in the Republic of Colombia, department of Cauca.
The archdiocese covers an area of 30,000 sq. km., with a population of 650,500 inhabitants, almost all Catholics; it has 134 churches and 54 parishes served by 94 diocesan priests and 28 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 10 male and 48 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 323).
The diocese of P. was founded by Paul III on 1 Sept. 1546, but was not erected until 8 Sept. 1547, when the first bishop, don Juan del Valle, was appointed. It was a suffragan of Lima until 1574, the year in which Bogotá was raised to an archdiocese and received P. as a suffragan. On 20 June 1900 Pope Leo XIII raised it to metropolitan rank, assigning it Cali, Garzón, and Pasto as suffragans. Its first archbishop was Manuel José de Cavzedo. Other noteworthy bishops were Agustín de la Coruña (1509–89), who was a disciple of St. Thomas of Villanova, and Carlos Bermúdez (1817–86), who re-established the seminary.
Among the religious buildings of P., worthy of mention are the ancient convent of S. Francesco, now the Government House; the Cathedral, dedicated to the B. M. V. Assumed into Heaven, begun in 1856 and completed in 1906; the church of S. José, built for the Jesuits toward the end of the seventeenth century; the churches of S. Francesco and S. Domenico, rich in artistic statues and ornaments; and the Archbishop’s Palace, an ancient and imposing seventeenth-century structure.