CALBAYOG, DIOCESE OF. – A city in the province of Samar in the Philippine Islands, and seat of the suffragan diocese of Nombre de Jesús (Cebú), comprising the islands of Samar, Biliran, and Capul, with a territory of 13,556 sq. km. (1948).
The diocese has 21 parishes and a total population of 600,000, of whom 599,400 are Catholics, distributed in 38 parishes under the direction of 45 secular priests and 7 religious (1948).
Erected on 10 April 1910 by separation from the diocese of Cebú, Calbayog became first a suffragan of Manila, and then of Cebú when the latter was raised to metropolitan status (28 April 1934). In November 1937 the province of Leyte was detached from Calbayog to form the diocese of Palo.
BIBL.: AAS, 2 (1910), p. 290; 27 (1935), pp. 263 ff.; 30 (1938), pp. 245-248; C. F. Wemyss Brown, Samar and Leyte, in Cath. Enc., XIII, p. 415, XVI, p. 34; Suppl., p. 141; The Official Catholic Directory, New York 1938, part 2, p. 642; in Corrado Morin.