ZACATECAS, Diocese of. – City and diocese of the homonymous state (Mexico).
It has an area of 57,637 sq. km. with a population of 561,521 inhabitants, of whom 557,521 are Catholic; it comprises 69 parishes served by 148 diocesan priests and 2 regular priests; it has two seminaries; 2 male religious communities and 27 female ones (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 the Franciscans (1567), the Augustinians (1576), the Dominicans (1604), the Jesuits (1616), and the 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 facade of red stone. Also worthy of mention is the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.