CORUMBÀ, DIOCESE of. - Situated in the western part of the State of Mato Grosso, in Brazil, suffragan of the archdiocese of Cuiabà, with an area of approximately 27,000 sq. km. and a population of approximately 300,000 inhabitants; 17 parishes, served by 63 Salesians, Franciscans, and Redemptorists. There is no seminary or diocesan clergy.
The titular of the cathedral is Our Lady of the Candelora. The city of C., on the Paraguai River, is an important river port and commercial and military centre, owing to its proximity to the Bolivian and Paraguayan frontiers; it is connected with S. Paulo and Rio de Janeiro by railways and air lines, and has 30,000 inhabitants.
C. was among the many settlements founded by the fourth governor of Mato Grosso, Luiz de Albuquerque de Melo Parreira e Caceres, who established there the Albuquerque garrison on 21 Sept. 1768. During the war between Brazil and Paraguay, it was occupied by the troops of General Barrios (Jan. 1865), who abandoned it after a heroic resistance in 1867, when the Brazilians retook it by assault. On 15 Nov. 1878 it was raised to the rank of city; on 10 March 1910 to that of episcopal see, with the creation of the ecclesiastical province of Cuiabà, having been detached from that archdiocese.
The recent prelature nullius of Chapada formed part of the territory of the diocese of C. in 1941.