The Ecclesiastical Directory is the Magisterium AI database covering the institutional Church — every pope in history, all current and historical bishops and cardinals, religious orders, basilicas, cathedrals, shrines, councils, conclaves, consistories, nunciatures, bishops' conferences, pontifical universities, and Roman Curia departments. Ask in plain language and the AI returns a profile card, a list, or a written answer.

What is covered

• Popes — 267 entries with pontificate dates, country of origin, end reason, beatification and canonization status.
• Living clergy — over 3,500 currently-serving bishops, archbishops, and cardinals with biographical detail.
• Bishop appointments — nearly 25,000 historical appointment events linking persons to sees with role and date.
• Cardinal appointments — every cardinal elevation on record, with consistory, titular church, and age at elevation.
• Religious orders — 354 institutes of consecrated life with founder, founding year, charism, and headquarters.
• Sacred places — 1,429 basilicas, 657 cathedrals, and 279 shrines, with city, country, type, and architectural detail where known.
• Governance — 21 ecumenical councils, 64 conclaves, 20 consistories, 178 apostolic nunciatures, 115 bishops' conferences, 67 pontifical universities, and 66 Roman Curia departments.

Looking up a person

Tell me about Cardinal Robert Sarah.

Who is the current Archbishop of Westminster?

Show me Pope Pius V's pontificate.

The reply opens a person profile card with biographical detail, appointment history, and links to outside sources. For bishops, you will see ordination, consecration, and the full chain of sees they have held.

Looking up an institution or place

List every minor basilica in Italy.

Which religious orders were founded in the 19th century, and where are their headquarters?

Show me the cathedrals of South America with their architectural style and construction year.

What does the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith do?

Where are the apostolic nunciatures of Africa?

Asking about Church history

Historical aggregates work too — useful for catechesis, talks, or research.

How many cardinals participated in the conclave of 2013?

List the ecumenical councils in chronological order, with start and end years.

Which popes resigned, and why?

Which bishops' conferences cover more than one country?

The four databases behind Spiritual Statistics

Magisterium AI ships with four distinct Catholic datasets. The chat picks the right one (or combines several) based on your question — you do not need to specify which to use.

• Catholic statistics on countries and dioceses — the Vatican Statistical Yearbook (Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae) and Annuario Pontificio. 51 annual snapshots from 1973–2023, covering ~235 countries and ~2,800 ecclesiastical jurisdictions worldwide.
• Saints database — over 12,500 saints, blessed, venerables, and servants of God with biographical detail, canonization status, feast days, and patronages.
• Ecclesiastical Directory — popes, living and historical bishops, cardinals, religious orders, basilicas, cathedrals, shrines, conclaves, consistories, ecumenical councils, apostolic nunciatures, bishops' conferences, pontifical universities, and Roman Curia departments.
• Church financial records — audited financial figures for ~630 dioceses, archdioceses, eparchies, and Holy See bodies (Holy See, APSA, IOR, Bambino Gesù), including total revenue, expenses, net assets, Peter's Pence, annual appeals, and ~1,300 other metrics.

Limits and access

Free accounts can run three Spiritual Statistics queries per week and twenty data visualisations (charts) per week. Pro, Org, and Enterprise plans get unlimited Spiritual Statistics and unlimited data visualisations.

All four datasets are queried through the same chat tool. If the AI cannot find what you asked for, it will say so plainly — it does not invent figures, and every chart or profile is grounded in a row that exists in the database.