The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Jaro is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church headquartered in Jaro, Iloilo City, the Philippines. It is based with the Jaro Cathedral (officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, also the National Shrine of Our Lady of Candles) as its seat. The Archdiocese of Jaro is one of the oldest episcopal sees in the country. It was established as a parish in 1587 and was elevated to a diocese by a papal bull of Pope Pius IX on May 27, 1865, according to a document signed by Archbishop Gregorio Martinez, then archbishop of Manila. The diocese was created from the territory of the Archdiocese of Manila. Its first bishop was Mariano Cuartero, a Dominican missionary in the Philippines, who took possession of the diocese, on April 25, 1868. It is also one of the largest episcopal sees during the Spanish colonial era encompassing the whole island of Panay (Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras and Iloilo provinces), Mindoro, Romblon, Negros (Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental provinces), Palawan, Davao, Sulu, Cotabato and Zamboanga Peninsula as part of its jurisdiction. On April 10, 1910, it lost some of its territory to the newly created Diocese of Zamboanga and Apostolic Prefecture of Palawan. Negros Oriental (Dumaguete) was also its part but became a separate diocese under Cebu. Later, three other ecclesiastical jurisdictions were established from its territory: the Diocese of Bacolod (15 July 1932), Apostolic Prefecture of Mindoro (2 July 1936), and Roman Catholic Diocese of Capiz (27 January 1951). On April 28, 1934, Pope Pius XI promulgated an apostolic constitution with the incipit Romanorum Pontificum semper separating the dioceses of Cebu, Calbayog, Jaro, Bacolod, Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro from the ecclesiastical province of Manila. The same constitution elevated the diocese of Cebu into an archdiocese while placing all the newly separated dioceses under a new ecclesiastical province with Cebu as the new metropolitan see. On 29 June 1951, it was raised as a Metropolitan Archdiocese by Pope Pius XII. On 24 March 1962, it lost some territory to establish the Territorial Prelature (now Diocese) of San Jose de Antique. At present, the Archdiocese of Jaro covers the provinces of Iloilo and Guimaras, an island off Iloilo. Suffragan dioceses include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bacolod, the Diocese of San Carlos, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kabankalan, all in the province Negros Occidental and the Roman