Archdiocese of Philadelphia

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia was established in 1808 — one of the first four Catholic dioceses in the United States — and elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese in 1875. It covers five southeastern Pennsylvania counties (Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery) and today encompasses 245 parishes. The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, completed in 1864, is one of the largest Catholic churches in the country and the spiritual center of a region where public Catholic worship dates to 1707.