Santa Fe, Archdiocese of

SANTA FE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Archdiocese and city in the State of New Mexico (U.S.A.). In 1598, Juan de Onate took possession of New Mexico in the name of the King of Spain. The Franciscans worked at St. Gabriel, but the center of religious activity was transferred shortly afterward to S. F.

Today the ecclesiastical province is made up of the dioceses of S. F., El Paso and Gallup. There are 470,000 inhabitants and 240,000 Catholics in the diocese, which covers a territory of 74,860 miles; 207 priests (85 religious from 9 different congregations) exercise the sacred ministry in the 72 parishes, 40 chapels, 374 missions and stations. There are furthermore 19 female congregations (580 nuns), 1 diocesan seminary, 1 school, 2 colleges, 2 orphanages and 9 hospitals.

Success was scant at the beginning because the military governors demanded that the religious work among the soldiers and the whites rather than among the natives. The Franciscans nevertheless insisted on obtaining permission to devote themselves to the conversion of the natives. The conversions were numerous after 1620 and after about twenty years all the Pueblo natives (Tigueux and Quirix) were converted (ca. 40,000). The religious were then 50, in 30 residences. The Spanish government asked Rome for the foundation of a diocese, but the religious thought that the population was not yet mature. Difficulties arose a few years later; on 10 Aug. 1680, 21 Franciscans were killed and many missions destroyed. At the beginning of the 19th century there were 34 Franciscans occupied especially among the white population. Shortly afterward Mexico expelled all the Spaniards. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded New Mexico to the United States and, at the request of the American bishops, the Holy See erected the apostolic vicariate of New Mexico in 1850 and Msgr. John Lamy (a native of France) was appointed bishop. The dismemberment from Durango (Mexico) had not been done canonically, which caused many difficulties for the new titular; therefore in 1853 the diocese of S. F. was canonically erected.

The diocese then included the following States: New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. In 1875, four new ecclesiastical provinces were erected in the United States: Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and S. F. The latter had the apostolic vicariates of Utah-Colorado and of Arizona as suffragans.

Gastone Carrière

SANTA FÉ, ARCHDIOCESE of. - City and archdiocese of the province of the same name in the Argentine Republic.

It has an area of 104,665 sq km with a population of 786,000 inhabitants, of whom 730,000 are Catholics; it has 107 parishes served by 137 diocesan priests and 83 regulars; it has a seminary, 20 male religious communities and 55 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 361). It was elevated to a diocese on 15 Feb. 1897 by dismemberment from the diocese of Paraná. Its first bishop was Msgr. Juan Augustin Boneo. Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution Nobilis Argentinae Nationis, of 20 Apr. 1934, elevated it to a metropolitan see. The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Joseph. Its suffragans are the dioceses of Resistencia, Rosario and Tucuman.

Enrico Josi