during the Spanish colonial period. Per the efforts of
conquistador Martín de Goiti – who founded the
City of Manila by uniting the dominions of
Sulayman III of
Namayan, Sabag,
Rajah Ache Matanda of
Maynila who was a vassal to the
Sultan of Brunei, and
Lakan Dula of
Tondo who was a tributary to
Ming dynasty China – the Diocese of Manila was established on February 6, 1579, through the
papal bull Illius Fulti Præsidio by
Pope Gregory XIII, encompassing all
Spanish colonies in Asia as a
suffragan of the
Archdiocese of Mexico. Fray
Domingo de Salazar, a
Dominican from the Convent of San Sebastian in
Salamanca, Spain, was selected by King
Philip II of Spain to be bishop of the new diocese and was presented to the pope. Over the course of history and growth of Catholicism in the Philippines, the diocese was elevated in rank and new dioceses had been carved from its territory. On August 14, 1595,
Pope Clement VIII raised the diocese to the status of an archdiocese with
Bishop Ignacio Santibáñez its first archbishop. Three new dioceses were created as
suffragans to Manila:
Nueva Cáceres,
Nueva Segovia, and
Cebu. With the creation of these new dioceses, the territory of the archdiocese was reduced to the city of Manila and the adjoining
civil provinces in proximity including
Mindoro Island. It was bounded to the north by the
Diocese of Nueva Segovia, to the south by the
Diocese of Cebu, and to the southeast by the
Diocese of Nueva Cáceres. During the Spanish period, the archdiocese was ruled by a succession of
Spanish and
Latino archbishops. In the 1600s, Fr. Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga conducted a census of the Archdiocese of Manila, which encompassed most of Luzon, and he reported 90,243 native Filipino tributes; and 10,517 mixed
Spanish Filipino mestizo tributes. Nevertheless, peace was subsequently restored after, Catholic religious orders became the powerful driving force in the Archdiocese of Manila (with the exception of the
Jesuits who were
temporarily suppressed in Spanish lands due to their role in anti-imperialist movements in
Latin America like the
Paraguayan Reductions). Local Filipino secular clergy resented the foreign religious orders due to their near-
monopoly of ecclesiastical positions, which violated the declarations of the
Council of Trent, stating that once an place is no longer a missionary area but a regular diocese, friars are to surrender parishes to secular priests. However, upon the suppression of the Jesuits, the
Recollect Order took over the former’s parishes and surrendered their parishes to local secular clergy, temporarily assuaging Filipino yearnings. and
Philippine Freemasonry placed under control of the
Grand Lodge of California. Under American colonial control, the Catholic Church was
disestablished as the state church of the Philippines, with the postwar period seeing some churches restored in the
Art-Deco style. There was a looming threat of
apostasy and
schism with the rise of anti-clerical
Philippine Freemasonry and the establishment of the
Philippine Independent Church due to Filipino anger against Spanish ecclesiastical corruption. In response,
Pope Leo XIII in 1902
excommunicated all adherents of the Philippine Independent Church, yet supported Philippine political independence with a policy of reinforcing orthodoxy and reconciliation. This resulted in a majority of Filipinos remaining in
full communion with the
Holy See, and a good number of those who had left the Church returning. On April 10, 1910,
Pope Pius X carved out from Manila the
Diocese of Lipa, with jurisdiction over the provinces of
Batangas,
Tayabas,
Marinduque,
Laguna and
Mindoro, and some parts of
Masbate. In May 1928,
Pope Pius XI established the
Diocese of Lingayen, using territory from Manila and Nueva Segovia. In this creation, twenty-six parishes were separated from Manila. December 8, 1941, marked the beginning of the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
World War II marked a period of irreplaceable loss to the Archdiocese of Manila. The combination of violent theft and arson done by the Japanese and indiscriminate
carpet bombing by the
Americans during the
Battle of Manila (1945) led to the permanent loss of many Gothic, Art-Deco, and
Earthquake Baroque churches. Interestingly, then-Father
Rufino Jiao Santos (a future Archbishop of Manila) was taken captive by the Japanese, but was saved by combined Filipino and American forces. as the
Immaculate Conception, patroness of the archdiocese In the aftermath of the war, in September 1942,
Pope Pius XII declared
Our Lady of Immaculate Conception as the
Principal Patroness of the Philippines by virtue of the
papal bull,
Impositi Nobis, along with
Pudentiana and
Rose of Lima as secondary patrons. Due to the heavy damages resulting from World War II, the Manila Cathedral underwent major rebuilding from 1946 to 1958. The Parish of
San Miguel served as temporary
pro-cathedral until the Manila Cathedral was reopened and consecrated in 1958. On December 11, 1948, the Apostolic Constitution
Probe Noscitur further divided the Archdiocese of Manila by placing the northern part of the local church in the new
Diocese of San Fernando. On November 25, 1961, the Archdiocese of Manila was again partitioned with the creation of the
Diocese of Malolos for the province of
Bulacan in the north and the
Diocese of Imus for the province of
Cavite to the south.
Pope John Paul II declared the
Manila Cathedral a
minor basilica in 1981 through the
motu proprio Quod ipsum, issued as a papal bull. In 1983, the province of
Rizal, the city of
Marikina, and northeastern portions of
Pasig, were placed under the new
Diocese of Antipolo. The archdiocese witnessed many grace-filled church events such as the Second Synod of Manila (1911), the Third Synod of Manila (1925), the 33rd
International Eucharistic Congress (1937), the First Plenary Council of the Philippines (1953), the papal visit of
Pope Paul VI (1970), the Fourth Synod of Manila (1979), the papal visits of
Pope John Paul II (the first in 1981 and the second in
1995), the National Marian Year (1985), the National Eucharistic Year (1987), the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (1991), the Second Provincial Council of Manila (1996), the Fourth World Meeting of Families (2003), and the papal visit of
Pope Francis (2015). With the increasing population of
the metropolis, Cardinal
Jaime Sin, its thirtieth archbishop, requested Pope John Paul II to divide the Archdiocese since according to him, the "ecclesiastical area was too big, too extensive, too populous, and too complex for one archbishop to handle properly". In response, the Vatican carved out two more dioceses from the Archdiocese in 2002: the
Diocese of Novaliches and the
Diocese of Parañaque. In 2003, three more dioceses were erected:
Cubao,
Kalookan, and
Pasig. ==Coat of arms==