Archdiocese of Washington
archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church serving Washington, D.C., and five counties of Maryland, United States
The Archdiocese of Washington (Latin: Archidiœcesis Metropolitae Vashingtonensis) is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church for the District of Columbia and several Maryland counties in the United States. The archdiocese is home to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The only suffragan diocese of the archdiocese is the Diocese of Saint Thomas. The mother church is the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington. Robert McElroy is the archbishop.
Territory
The Archdiocese of Washington encompasses the District of Columbia and the following counties in Maryland: Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's, and Saint Mary's.
History
1600 to 1700
In the 17th century, the present-day District of Columbia was part of the British Province of Maryland. Unlike the other American colonies, the Province of Maryland had been settled by the 2nd Baron Baltimore, as a haven for Catholic refugees from Great Britain.
On March 25, 1634, the first Catholic Mass in the English-speaking colonies was celebrated by Andrew White, an English Jesuit missionary, to recent immigrants from German states on St.
The public source identifies “Archdiocese of Washington” as archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church serving Washington, D.C., and five counties of Maryland, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Archdiocese, Washington and archdiocese.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Archdiocese of Washington”, the useful work is to connect “archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church serving Washington, D.C., and five counties of Maryland, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1365883. Authority coordinates are 38.953, -76.985. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1600, 1700 and 1634.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Archdiocese of Washington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.