ZACATECAS, DIOCESI of. — City and diocese of the state of the same name (Mexico).
It has an area of 57,637 sq. km. and a population of 561,521 inhabitants, of whom 557,521 are Catholics; it has 69 parishes served by 148 diocesan priests and 2 religious priests; it has two seminaries, 2 male and 27 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 460).
The territory of Z. was conquered between 1546 and 1548 by the Spaniards, who founded the first parish there in 1569 at Guadalajara. During the centuries that followed, the Franciscans (1567), Augustinians (1576), Dominicans (1604), Jesuits (1616), and Mercedarians (1701) established themselves there. The diocese was created by Pope Pius IX in 1863 as a suffragan of Guadalajara. The Cathedral, built in 1559 and completed in 1782, has a red-stone façade. Also noteworthy is the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.