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 Catholic, served by 134 churches and 54 parishes attended by 94 diocesan priests and 28 religious; it has a seminary, 10 male religious communities and 48 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 323).
The diocese of P. was founded by Paul III on 1 Sept. 1546, but was not actually erected until 8 Sept. 1547, when the first bishop, Don Juan del Valle, was appointed. It was a suffragan of Lima until 1574, when Bogotá was raised to an archdiocese and received P. as a suffragan. On 20 June 1900, Pope Leo XIII elevated it to a metropolitan see, giving it as suffragans Cali, Garzón and Pasto. Its first archbishop was Manuel José de Cayzedo. Other notable bishops include Agustín de la Coruña (1509–89), a disciple of St Thomas of Villanova, and Carlos Bermúdez (1817–86), who restored the seminary.
Among the religious buildings of P. worthy of mention are the old convent of St Francis, now the Government House; the cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed, begun in 1856 and completed in 1906; the church of St Joseph, built for the Jesuits towards the end of the 17th century; the churches of St Francis and St Dominic, rich in artistic statues and furnishings; and the archiepiscopal palace, an ancient and grand building from the 17th century.