Diocese of Tamaulipas

(CIVTTATIS VICTORIÆ SIVE TAMAULIPENSIS)

Diocese in the Mexican Republic, suffragan of Linares. Its area is that of the state of the same name, 31,758 sq. miles, besides two parishes in the northern part of the State of Vera Cruz; it has a population of 249,253 (Census of 1910). The residence of the bishop and governor is in Ciudad Victoria, 2467 feet above sea level, which has a population of 17,861 inhabitants (1910). Father André Olmos, who was the first to preach the Gospel in the region now known as the above bishopric, came from Burgos, Spain, in 1528, and worked until 1571, when he died at Tampico, beloved by all. In 1530 the Franciscan Fathers founded the Guardianship of San Salvador, which comprised twelve convents, and were almost all situated in the territory now known as the State of Tamaulipas; a few of these convents, however, were situated outside of this territory, for instance, that of Ozuloama, which is now a parish, and which, although situated in the State of Vera Cruz, belongs to the Bishopric of Tamaulipas. In 1748 the Fathers of the Apostolic College of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas took charge of the missions; these were placed in the hands of the Fathers of the Province of Santo Evangelio de Mexico in 1768. This see was planned as early as 1722. In 1860 Pius IX made a vicariate Apostolic of the territory, and in 1869 the pope's Bull "Apostolicum in Universas Orbis Ecclesias" raised it to the rank of a bishopric, naming Ciudad Victoria as its episcopal see, and making it suffragan of Mexico. When the new Archbishopric of Linares (or Monterey) was created in 1891 it became part of it, and so remains to this day.

There are no seminaries in this bishopric, priests and rectors being furnished by the Diocese of Zamora and others. It is credited, however, with 3 parochial schools, and 6 Catholic colleges with 700 students; there are 10 Protestant colleges, numbering about 500 students, and 14 Protestant churches. The episcopal city of Ciudad Victoria was founded in 1750 under the name of Santa Maria del Refugio de Aguayo, and has been known by its present name only since 1825.

VERA, Catecismo geográfico histórico, y estadístico de la Iglesia mexicana (Amecameca, 1881).

Camillus Crivelli.