Parishes 76 Ecclesiastical province Malta Church 460 | Metropolitan Malta Churches 460 Area 246 km² Territory Malta | |
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Population- Total- Catholics (as of 2013)413,000380,000 (92%) Cathedral St. Paul's Cathedral, Mdina | ||
The Archdiocese of Malta (Malti: Arċidjoċesi ta' Malta) is a metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in Malta.
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Origins
Tradition claims that St Paul himself established the diocese of Malta in the year 60 A.D when he ordained the Roman governor, Publius, the first Maltese saint, as the first bishop of Malta. Thus with this act Malta became one of the first countries to convert to Christianity in the world and the first to do so in the west. The Diocese of Malta was made a suffragan seat to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palermo by a Papal Bull of Pope Adrian IV on 10 July 1156 and confirmed by Pope Alexander III on 26 April 1160. The former Diocese of Malta, which is one of the oldest dioceses in the world, was elevated to archdiocese on January 1, 1944. Before 1864, the Diocese of Malta included the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino respectively. On September 22, 1864 the diocese lost the territories of Gozo and Comino when Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Gozo which became a suffragan diocese to Malta.
Cathedrals
There are two cathedrals in the diocese: The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Paul, in Mdina, and the Co-Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, located in Valletta.