[2] Pope Pius X decreed, through the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, that four episcopal sees in the Philippines be created (Lipa, Calbayog, Tuguegarao, and Zamboanga), with the apostolic prefecture of Palawan, as suffragans to the metropolitan Church of Manila.

The Catholic faith was brought to Zamboanga by Jesuit missionaries Melchor de Vera and Alejandro Lopez in 1635.

The efforts of the Spanish authorities to subdue the Muslims resulted in reprisal raids in Zamboanga and the Visayan islands.

The Jesuit priests Francesco Palliola and Alejandro Lopez died as martyrs in their efforts to win the tribespeople through diplomacy.

On April 28, 1934, 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.

Zamboanga was established as an archdiocese on May 15, 1958, by Pope Pius XII, with the appointment of Bishop Luis Del Rosario, SJ, as its first Metropolitan Archbishop.

August 21 – Memorial of Saint Pius X, pope and secondary patron of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga[10] October 12 – Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Pillar (Nuestra Señora Virgen del Pilar), Patroness of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.