SUCRE, ARCHDIOCESE OF
Sucre is the capital city of the department of Chuquisaca and the seat of an archdiocese in Bolivia (South America).
It covers an area of 50,875 sq. km. with a population of 40,000, of whom 36,400 are Catholic; it comprises 13 deaneries, 35 parishes served by 36 diocesan priests and 30 religious; it has 6 male and 9 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 410).
The diocese was erected by Pope Julius III on 27 June 1551 under the name of Charcas, as a suffragan of Lima; it was raised to the status of a metropolitan see by Pope Paul V on 20 July 1609. At that time its ecclesiastical province extended beyond Bolivia, gradually acquiring as suffragans the dioceses of La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba. On 22 May 1919, by decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, the vast territory of the Chaco was detached from the archdiocese of Plata and erected as an apostolic vicariate (AAS, 11 [1919], pp. 234-35). Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution *Praedecessoribus nostris* of 1 November 1924, dismembered certain territories from the archdiocese to form the new dioceses of Oruro, Tarija, and Potosí, and changed the name of the archdiocese itself to Sucre (AAS, 17 [1925], pp. 501-503). Its suffragans are the dioceses of Potosí, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Tarija. The same Pope, by an apostolic letter of 8 April 1925, granted the metropolitan church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and containing the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe the title of minor basilica and insignia to the Chapter (ibid., pp. 229-30).
The metropolitan basilica, built in 1568 as a single-nave structure, had its side aisles and bell tower added in the 19th century. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is of solid gold. Adjoining the cathedral is the archiepiscopal residence. Notable churches include those of St Philip, St Augustine, St Dominic, La Merced, St Lazarus, and St Michael.
On 27 March 1644 the University of Chuquisaca was founded under the title of the Royal and Pontifical University of St Francis Xavier, by a bull of Gregory XV of 8 August 1623 and the *Real Cédula* of Philip III of 2 February 1622. Until its suppression in 1767, the university was entrusted to the Jesuits. It was reorganized in 1826 by Marshal de Ayacucho.