CAMPOS, DIOCESI di. - In the northern region of the State of Rio de Janeiro, suffragan of the archdiocese of S. Sebastiano di Rio de Janeiro.
Area: 17,403 sq. km; population: 950,000 inhabitants. It has 292 churches, 38 parishes, 23 diocesan priests and 18 regular priests (1948). The titular of the cathedral is the Most Holy Saviour. C. has been a city since 1835; an agricultural and economic centre, with a fair industry and a river port, it is the most flourishing city in the state, situated amid the exceedingly fertile plain at the mouth of the Parnaiba.
Its civil history begins with the transfer of the village of S. João da Barra from the district where the city now stands (c. 1674), carried out by General João Correia de Sa. C. was the scene of some conflicts, until the whole region submitted to the captaincy of Espírito Santo. Its great development, however, dates from the beginning of the last century and was due to the immense coffee and sugar-cane plantations worked by black slaves.
The diocese was erected by Pio XI through the constitution Ad supremae Apostolicae Sedis solium of 4 Dec. 1922, by dismemberment from the diocese of Niterói.