POPAYÁN, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in the Republic of Colombia, department of Cauca.
The archdiocese has an area of 30,000 sq. km. with a population of 650,500 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, with 134 churches and 54 parishes served by 94 diocesan priests and 28 regulars; 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 Sept. 1, 1546, but it was not erected until Sept. 8, 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 elevated to an archdiocese and received P. as a suffragan. On June 20, 1900, Pope Leo XIII elevated it to a metropolitan see, giving it Cali, Garzón and Pasto as suffragans. Its first archbishop was Manuel José de Cavzedo. Other notable bishops are Agustín de la Coruña (1509-89), who was a disciple of St. Thomas of Villanova, and Carlos Bermúdez (1817-86), who reestablished the seminary.
Among the religious buildings of P., worthy of mention are the ancient convent of St. Francis, now the Government House; the Cathedral, dedicated to the B. V. M. Assumed into Heaven, begun in 1856 and completed in 1906; the church of St. Joseph, built for the Jesuits toward the end of the 17th century; the churches of St. Francis and St. Dominic, rich in artistic statues and ornaments; the Archbishop's Palace, an ancient and grandiose construction of the 17th century.
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Enrico Josi