Belem do Grao Para, Archdiocese of

BELÉM DO GRÃO PARÁ, ARCHDIOCESE of. - In Brazil, in the State of Pará. A city founded in 1616 on the Pará estuary; today it has a population of 500,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the State of Pará (1,362,966 sq. km.). The diocese of B. was erected on 4 March 1719 by Pope Clement XI, with the bull Copiosus in misericordia, from territories of the diocese of S. Luigi di Maranhao; it was a suffragan of Lisbon until 1827, and thereafter of S. Salvatore della Bahia. It has been an archdiocese since 1 May 1906. From the first half of the seventeenth century it was cultivated by Franciscan, Jesuit, Carmelite, and Mercedarian missionaries. With the expulsion of the Jesuits and the removal of the other missionaries, the missions declined, and did not flourish again until recent times, through the work of mons. Antonio de Macedo Costa. From 1893 to 1934, the diocese of Amazoni and the prelatures nullius of Santarem, S.ma Concezione di Aragonya, Marajó, Gurupy (now Guamá), Xingú (v.) were detached from B. It has 44 parishes, 22 diocesan priests, 10 male and 10 female religious congregations, and two seminaries. The clergy is still scarce. The cathedral was begun in 1739 and restored by mons. Macedo Costa. The episcopal residence occupies the former Jesuit college. Besides the Cathedral, the basilica of Nazareth, founded at the initiative of the Barnabite L. Zoia, is noteworthy.