SAN LUIGI (SAINT LOUIS), ARCHDIOCESE of. — Archdiocese and city in the State of Missouri (U.S.A.). The archdiocese covers an area of 27,092 square miles, with a total population of 2,133,857 inhabitants, including 446,423 Catholics. There are 1,001 priests (449 religious from 17 congregations), 278 parishes, 42 women’s congregations, 2 seminaries, 13 schools, 6 colleges and universities, including the flourishing University of S. L., directed by the Jesuit fathers, 8 orphanages and nurseries, 16 hospitals, and 10 homes for the elderly.
The city of S. L. was founded in 1764 by Pietro Liguet Laclede, a Frenchman from Luisiana. By the Treaty of Paris, Spain took possession of all Luisiana west of the Mississippi River. Consequently, S. L. came under the jurisdiction of Santiago di Cuba; there were 2 priests in the territory, a Recollect and a Jesuit. The Capuchin Fathers arrived there in 1772; the first church had been opened in 1770.
In 1800 Luisiana returned once more to France, and three years later it was ceded to the United States. Thus S. L. successively came under the authority of the apostolic vicariate of Canada (1658–74), the diocese of Quebec (1674–1759), Santiago di Cuba (1759–87), Havana (1787–93), and Luisiana and Florida (1793–1826). The part situated east of the Mississippi belonged to the apostolic vicariate of Canada (1658–74), the apostolic prefecture of the 13 States of the Union (1784–89), the diocese of Baltimore (1789–1808), and thereafter to that of Bardstown (1808–34).
The diocese was founded on 14 July 1826, by dividing Luisiana between the two new dioceses of Nuova Orleans and S. L. The first bishop was Msgr. G. Rosati, an Italian. As the ecclesiastical provinces multiplied, S. L. became an archdiocese on 28 July 1847, and in 1849 the dioceses of Dubuque, Nashville, Chicago, and Milwaukee were its suffragans. The first archbishop was Msgr. Pietro Ricardo Kenrick. Before 1843 there were only 3 churches in the city and 39 in the entire diocese; at his death there were 58 parishes in S. L. and 108 outside the city. During his lifetime, 16 new episcopal sees were separated from S. L.: Little Rock (1843), Santa Fé and S. Paolo (1850), Leavenworth (1851), Alton and Omaha (1857), Gren Bay, La Crosse, S. Giuseppe, Denver (1868), Kansas City (1880), Davenport (1881), Wichita, Concordia, Cheyenne, and Lincoln (1887). Today the province of S. L. consists of Kansas City (Mo.); Kansas City (Kans.); S. Giuseppe Salina (Kans.); Wichita (Kans.).