In 1836 Pope Gregory XIV made Madurai into an Apostolic Prefecture, in 1846 it was raised to an Apostolic Vicariate and entrusted to the Fathers of Society of Jesus, On Sept. 1, 1886 the Vicariate became a Diocese with the episcopal residence fixed at Tiruchirapalli with Msgr, Alexis Canoz S.J. (1846-1888) as its first Bishop and the territory was called the Diocese of Tiruchirapalli.In 1923 Pope Pius XI separated the South Eastern part of the diocese known as the fishery coast and made it into a separate Diocese of Tuticorin. In 1938 again the South Western portion was divided and made into the Archdiocese of Madurai by the bull "Si inter infideles." In 2003 December Pope John Paul II bifurcated the Vicariate of Dindigul from the diocese of Tiruchirapalli and made it into a new diocese of Dindigul.