TUCSON, DIOCESE of. - City and diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Los Angeles, State of Arizona, U.S.A.
It has an area of 57,000 sq. km., with a total population of 600,000 inhabitants, of whom 200,000 are Catholics. There are 122 parishes served by 90 diocesan priests and 68 religious; 4 male and 19 female religious communities (411 sisters), 1 seminary, and 3 hospitals (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 435).
Until 1853 the territory of Arizona was part of the dioceses of Durango in Mexico, and in 1859 it was annexed to the diocese of Santa Fé. It was then raised to an apostolic vicariate in 1868 and elevated to a diocese by Leone XIII on 8 May 1897 for the whole territory of Arizona as a suf-
fragan of Santa Fé. The first apostolic vicar was Msgr. G. B. Salpointe. Pio XI, by the apostolic constitution Nimis amplas ecclesiasticas provincias of 11 July 1936, erected the archdiocese of Los Angeles, and T. was separated from the ecclesiastical province of Santa Fé to form the new province of Los Angeles.
The indigenous people were visited as early as 1539 by Fra' Marcos de Niza and evangelized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the Franciscans and Jesuits. Of the various churches founded by them, only that of Tumacacuri, now partly in ruins, and that of S. Xavier del Bac remain; the latter was founded by the celebrated Fr. Chino in 1699, and is the finest example of the missionary style of the Spanish Renaissance in northern Mexico, still preserved and in use.