Mariano Rossell y Arellano (18 July 1894,

Esquipulas Esquipulas (Nahuatl: Isquitzuchil, "place where flowers abound"), officially Municipality of Esquipulas, whose original name was Yzquipulas, is a town, with a population of 18,667 (2018 census), and a municipality located in the department of Chi ...

, Guatemala - 10 December 1964,

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

) was a Guatemalan Roman Catholic clergyman. He was the fifteenth archbishop of Guatemala from 1939 to 1964 and the first Prelate Nullius of

. He played a decisive role during the rule of colonel Jacobo Arbenz (1951–1954), accusing it of communism and atheism in sermons and services. After Arbenz's overthrow, he managed to retain the church's right to own property and to run schools, as well as setting up the Jesuit-run Rafael Landivar University and gaining the promotion of the prelature's main church to

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

status.

Sources

* 1894 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Guatemala Roman Catholic archbishops of Guatemala (1743-2013) {{Guatemala-bio-stub