Archdiocese of Mérida
Emeriten(sis) in Venetiola
Metropolitan see · Latin Church · Mérida, Venezuela
Mérida is a metropolitan archdiocese in western Venezuela, founded as a diocese in 1778 and elevated to archdiocese in 1923, with suffragans Barinas, Guasdualito, San Cristóbal, and Trujillo. Its archbishop since 2023 is Helizandro Terán Bermúdez, O.S.A. Note: this see is an archdiocese, not a diocese.
The see
- Rank
- Metropolitan see
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 16 February 1778
- Latin
- Emeriten(sis) in Venetiola
- Patron
- Immaculate Conception
- Annuario code
- 001002228
The see in figures
- Catholics
- 543,118
- Population
- 603,464
- Catholic share
- 90.0%
- Extent
- 8,109 km²
- Catholics per km²
- 67
of the people living within its bounds
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
- Helizandro Terán Bermúdez
- Born
- 7 June 1965
- Birthplace
- Maracaibo
- Institute
- ORDINE DI S. AGOSTINO (AGOSTINIANI)
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
Catedral Basílica Menor de la Inmaculada Concepción de Mérida stands in Mérida, 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 Mérida
This see is the metropolitan of its province.
On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.
History
In western Venezuela, the Latin Rite Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mérida carries the Latin title Archidioecesis Emeritensis in Venetiola. Its archbishops preside from the Catedral Basílica Menor de la Inmaculada Concepción de Mérida, a minor basilica in the city of Mérida, and the archdiocese also counts a second minor basilica, that of Santa Lucía in the town of Timotes, Miranda, Mérida municipality.
How to reach it
- Chancery
- Palacio Arzobispal, Avenida 4 Bolivar con calle 23, Apdo. 26, Mérida 5101-A, Venezuela
- Telephone
- [0274]252.57.86; fax 252.12.38
- [email protected]
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.
Sources
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].