The Latin Archdiocese of Teheran-Isfahan ( la, Archidioecesis Teheranensis-Hispahanensis Latinorum) is a

particular church In metaphysics, particulars or individuals are usually contrasted with universals. Universals concern features that can be exemplified by various different particulars. Particulars are often seen as concrete, spatiotemporal entities as opposed to a ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

."Archdiocese of Tehran-Isfahan"
''GCatholic.org''. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016
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Catholic-Hierarchy.org ''Catholic-Hierarchy.org'' is an online database of bishops and dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The website is not officially sanctioned by the Church. It is run as a private project by David M. Cheney in ...

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved February 29, 2016

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

changed the name of this jurisdiction to the Archdiocese of Teheran-Isfahan from the Archdiocese of Isfahan on 8 January 2021. Besides a small number of

Latin rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

locals, most Roman Catholics in Iran are foreigners living in the country. The majority of Catholics in Iran belong to the

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

, and there is also a small

Armenian Catholic Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

diocese.

Predecessor in the 14th century

Roman Catholic presence in Iran has always been a function of the relations between the Roman pope and the rulers of Iran. The first Roman Catholic diocese in Iran was founded by Dominicans in 1318 at

Soltaniyeh Soltaniyeh ( fa, سلطانيه, also Romanized as Solţānīyeh, Solţāneyyeh, Sultaniye, and Sultānīyeh; also known as Sa‘īdīyeh; ) is the capital city of Soltaniyeh District of Soltaniyeh County, Zanjan Province, northwestern Iran. At ...

which then was the capital of the Mongol

Ilkhan The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm, ...

rulers. It lasted less than 100 years into the beginning of the 15th century and disappeared during the conquests of

Timur Lenk Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

History

The diocese was established by Italian Dominican friars on October 12, 1629 when

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

was the capital of the

Safavid Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

Empire. The cathedral was situated in the then Christian suburb of

New Julfa New Julfa ( fa, نو جلفا – ''Now Jolfā'', – ''Jolfâ-ye Now''; hy, Նոր Ջուղա – ''Nor Jugha'') is the Armenian quarter of Isfahan, Iran, located along the south bank of the Zayande River. Established and named after the old ...

.In the modern city of Isfahan, of which New Jolfa nowadays is a quarter, here are twenty-five churches in the city, of which eleven are still functioning. This diocese continued under the rule of Shah Safi I. The next appointments of bishops were only possible with longer interruptions from 1693 until 1708 (Elias Mutton) and from 1716 until 1731 (Barnabas Fedeli). The small Catholic community in Isfahan was devastated by the Afghan invasion of the city in 1722. In consequence the titular diocese was administered from the see of Baghdad with only a handful of Catholic families surviving in Isfahan. In the 19th century Catholic missionaries were able to restart activities in Iran. From their center in

Urmia Urmia or Orumiyeh ( fa, ارومیه, Variously transliterated as ''Oroumieh'', ''Oroumiyeh'', ''Orūmīyeh'' and ''Urūmiyeh''.) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran and the capital of Urmia County. It is situated at an alt ...

, apostolic administrators tried to reorganize the Latin Church in the country. In 1896, the Lazarist missionary François Lesné was made bishop of Isfahan. Like his successor, Jacques-Emile Sontag, he resided in Urmia in Western Iran which until the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

held a sizeable Christian population of Assyrian and Chaldaean Christians. The diocese was elevated to an archdiocese on July 1, 1910. After the devastation of the Christian population during and after the First World War the see of Isfahan fell vacant again. It was not until 1974 that a new archbishop of Isfahan could be instituted. For this the Dominican priest

Kevin William Barden Kevin William Barden (3 June 1908 – 4 December 2004) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ispahan from 1974 to 1982. He had previously served as parish priest of the Dominican church in Tehran. Early life and ordination He was born in Dublin ...

at Tehran was chosen. Since then the see of the diocese has been at Tehran. When Barden was expelled from the country in the beginning of the Islamic revolution in 1980, it took another 9 years until the Salesian

Ignazio Bedini Ignazio Bedini, S.D.B., is a former Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus of Ispahan (Isfahan), Iran. Bedini was born in Sassomorello, near Modena, Italy, on 27 June 1939 and ordained as a priest of the Order of the Salesians of Saint John Bosco o ...

was consecrated new archbishop. Since his retirement in 2014, the diocese has been administered by an apostolic administrator.

Leadership

* Archbishop

François Lesné François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

(Apostolic Administrator April 9, 1896 – February 11, 1910) * Bishop Jacques-Emile Sontag, C.M. (later Archbishop) (July 13, 1910 – September 11, 1910) * Archbishop Jacques-Emile Sontag, C.M. (September 11, 1910 – July 27, 1918) * Archbishop

, O.P. (May 30, 1974 – August 12, 1982) * Archbishop

, S.D.B. (December 2, 1989 – 2014) * Jack Youssef C.M., Apostolic Administrator 2015 - 2021 * Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu, O.F.M. Conv, (8 January 2021 -)

References

Sources

GCatholic.org

* Daniele Federico Rosa (a cura di)
''La delegazione apostolica in Persia dalla creazione al 1936: alcuni cenni storici''
Città del Vaticano 2011

External links

* ttp://www.imprescriptible.fr/seyfo/sontag/ Website about Bishop Sontag(French)
Website of the Dominicans in Iran

{{authority control

Ispahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

Religious organizations established in the 1620s