Catholic Intelligence

Archdiocese of Santiago del Estero

Sancti Iacobi de Estero

Elevated from a diocese (erected 1907) to an archdiocese on 22 July 2024, when the primatial title of Argentina was transferred here from Buenos Aires in recognition of the first see on modern Argentine territory. Led by Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic since 2024. Sources differ on whether it remains suffragan of Tucuman or now heads its own province.

The see

Rank
Suffragan archdiocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
25 March 1907
Latin
Sancti Iacobi de Estero
Patron
St. James the Greater and Our Lady of Consolation of Sumampa
Annuario code
001002970

The see in figures

Catholics
728,824
Population
686,000
Priests
56
Catholics per priest
13,015
Extent
81,969 km²
Catholics per km²
8.9

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Archbishop
Vicente Bokalic Iglic, C.M.

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel stands in Santiago del Estero, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

The province of Santiago del Estero

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

Santiago del Estero (Latin: Archidioecesis Sancti Iacobi de Estero) holds the distinction of being the first diocese erected on territory of the modern Republic of Argentina. A Latin Catholic jurisdiction in the country's north, it long sat as a diocese within the ecclesiastical province of Tucumán, and even after being raised to an archdiocese and recognized as the Primacy of Argentina in 2024, it remains a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Tucumán.

How to reach it

Chancery
Obispado, Avda. Belgrano Sur 450, g4200aar Santiago del Estero, Argentina

This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

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Sources

Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].