[1] On 28 September 1960, in the bull Cum a nobis, Pope John XXIII separated the diocese of Lecce from the ecclesiastical province of Otranto and made it directly subject to the Holy See.

In the bull Conferentia Episcopalis Apuliae issued on 20 October 1980, Pope John Paul II created the ecclesiastical province of Lecce, with the Archdiocese of Otranto becoming a suffragan diocese.

[12] In 1885, the seminary had thirteen teachers and thirty clerics studying for the priesthood; in the previous five years there had been four ordinations and sixty deaths of priests.

Reacting to the large increase in population, and to the fact that Lecce had been made a provincial capital by the Italian government, Pope John XXIII issued the bull "Cum a Nobis" on 28 September 1960, separating Lecce from its relationship with the diocese of Otranto and making it directly subject to the Holy See.

After wide consultations among all affected parties, Pope John Paul II issued a decree on 20 October 1980, elevating Lecce to the status of metropolitan see.