CORUMBÁ, DIOCESE OF. – Located to the west of the State of Mato Grosso, in Brazil, a suffragan of the archdiocese of Cuiabá, with an area of approximately 27,000 sq. km. and a population of about 300,000, 17 parishes, served by 63 priests from the Salesians, Franciscans, and Redemptorists. There is no seminary or diocesan clergy.
The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of the Candlemas. The city of Corumbá, on the Paraguay River, is an important river port, a commercial and military center due to its proximity to the Bolivian and Paraguayan borders. It is connected to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro by railways and airlines and has a population of 30,000.
Corumbá was among the many settlements founded during the fourth administration of Mato Grosso by Luiz de Albuquerque de Melo Parreira e Cáceres, who established the Albuquerque garrison there on 21 September 1768. During the war between Brazil and Paraguay, it was occupied by the troops of General Barrios (January 1865), who abandoned it after a heroic resistance in 1867, when the Brazilians recaptured it by assault. On 15 November 1878, it was elevated to the rank of city; on 10 March 1910, it became an episcopal see with the creation of the ecclesiastical province of Cuiabá, having been detached from that archdiocese.
The recent prelature *nullius* of Chapada was part of the territory of the diocese of Corumbá in 1941.