THE ARCHDIOCESE AT A GLANCE

Archbishop	Most Rev. Raphy Manjaly (Jan. 2021 - present)
Primary Patroness	Immaculate Conception
Secondary Patron	St. Gonsalo Garcia
State	Uttar Pradesh
Area	49,162 Sq. Kms.
Total Population	31,800,000
Catholics	13, 665
Parishes/Mission Stations	48
Diocesan Priests	78
Priests of Changanacherry	21
Religious Priests	22
Priests in the Regional
Institutions in Agra	10
Religious Brothers	08
Religious Sisters	356
Congregations (Men)	09
Congregations (Women)	37
Religious Houses (Men)	16
Religious Houses (Women)	77
Vianney Home for Priests	01
Educational Institutions	77
Hospitals	02
Dispensaries	04
Various Training Centres	13
Home for Destitutes/Dying	02
Hostels for Boys & Girls	05
Home for Children at Risk	04
Printing School / Press	01
Languages Spoken	Hindi, English & Urdu

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGRA

Agra Archdiocese consists of the following districts in Uttar Pradesh: Agra, Aligarh, Auraiya, Budaun, Bulandshahr, Etah, Etawah, Farrukhabad, Firozabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Hathras, Kannauj, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Mathura and in Rajasthan, Bharatpur and Dholpur (17 Civil Districts).

Emperor Akbar wished to have some learned Christian priests in his Court, invited the Jesuits from their college at Goa. The first 'Mughal Mission' was thus formed by Blessed Rudolf Aquaviva (later a martyr at Goa), Antony Monserrate and Francis Henriques, who arrived at the Mughal Court, then at Fatehpur Sikri in 1580. A second and then a third mission followed. Jesuits enjoyed the patronage of Akbar and his son Jahangir, but under Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb this disappeared. Though there was no Christian congregation of importance in Mughal India, there were a number of individuals who wielded considerable influence in the Court and elsewhere.

When in 1773 the Jesuits were suppressed, two Carmelite Fathers from Bombay succeeded them in Agra, who in turn, were replaced by the Capuchins after a very short while. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation, dated May 17, 1784, the Vicariate-Apostolic of the Great Mughal was constituted.

The history of the Agra Mission under the Capuchins is linked with their mission in Tibet. Early in 1708, four Capuchins started from Kathmandu reached Lhasa after two months. More Capuchins followed them and took up their residence at Lhasa until April 20, 1745 when, owing to relentless persecution by the Tibetan Priesthood they had to leave Tibet and return to Nepal. Thus the Capuchin Mission in Lhasa came to an end. But the Mission continued its existence in Nepal until 1768.

The whole chain of Capuchin stations embracing the greater part of North India from Chandernagore to Lhasa, from Sind to Bengal, from the Himalayas to Narmada river, now the dioceses of Ajmer, Jaipur, Allahabad, Indore, Jhansi, Lahore, Lucknow, Meerut, Patna, Varanasi, Delhi, Jallandhar, Simla-Chandigarh, Bijnor and Jammu & Kashmir (formerly Rawalpindi) all came to be known as the Tibet Hindustan Mission. The Cathedrals at Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Delhi, Lahore (before the new one), Madras, Patna and Simla are symbols and monuments of the untiring zeal of the Capuchins for the extension of the faith and the progress of the Catholic Church in India.

The Prefecture Apostolic of Tibet -Hindustan was in 1820 constituted into the Vicariate Apostolic of Agra with Msgr. Maria Zenobia Benucci, OFM Cap as its first Vicar Apostolic, who was succeeded by Msgrs. Anthony Pezzoni and Anthony Borghi.

In 1845, the Agra Mission was divided into two separate vicariates: Agra and Patna. In 1846 the Kingdom of Tibet was entrusted to the Society of the Foreign Missions. In 1861 the districts of Allahabad, Oudh, Kanpur, Bundelkhand, Sagar and Bhopal were added to the Patna Vicariate, and in 1880 the districts of Kumaon and Almorah. In the same year, the Vicariate Apostolic of the Punjab was erected and separated from Agra. Finally in 1886 when the Catholic Hierarchy of India was established, the Vicariate Apostolic of Agra became a Metropolitan See from which the Prefecture Apostolic of Rajputana sprung in 1913, and in 1956, the nine northern districts were formed into the Diocese of Meerut.

Thus, the Archdiocese of Agra is rightly called the Mother Diocese of all the Dioceses of North India.