CHILLÁN, DIOCESE OF. — In Chile, a suffragan of the Most Holy Conception. Erected on 18 Oct. 1925, it comprises the province of Nubie and part of that of Maule, covering an area of 11,564 sq. km. and a population of about 287,279 inhabitants, of whom 258,552 are Catholics, divided into 26 parishes. The clergy consists of 35 secular priests and 40 regulars; there is a small seminary (1948).
Numerous are the male religious families (Franciscans, Dominicans, Mercedarians, Jesuits [who in Chile, until 1938, had their novitiate there, now transferred to Santiago], Trinitarians, Redemptorists, Carmelites). Among the female congregations: the Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who run a secondary school in Chillán; the Sisters of the Purissima, of the Good Shepherd of Angers, the Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, etc. The diocesan clergy run in Chillán the episcopal college and the Cauquenes Institute. Under Spanish rule, Chillán was the center of the Jesuit missions in the region. In 1939 the diocese was struck by a violent earthquake that caused about 50,000 deaths and severe damage to many churches and parish houses.