CRATO, DIOCESE of. - It occupies the southern part of the State of Ceará in Brazil, a hot and highly fertile region, but one sometimes struck by terrible droughts.
A suffragan of the archdiocese of Fortaleza, it extends over 40,000 sq. km., has more than 570,000 inhabitants, of whom 569,500 are Catholics, 29 parishes, 45 diocesan priests, and a minor seminary; the regular clergy are represented by the Salesians and the Fathers of the Holy Family; the women’s institutions are the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Teresa of Jesus and the diocesan congregation of the Daughters of St. Teresa, founded in 1923. Its titular patron is Our Lady of the Rock; feast day 1 Sept. C. has been a city since 1852.
Its nucleus was founded at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Ceará was still under the jurisdiction of the governor of Pernambuco. By the Catholicae Ecclesiae of 20 Oct. 1914, issued by Benedict XV, it was erected as the see of the diocese, whose territory was taken from that of Fortaleza, while belonging to the ecclesiastical province of Olanda and Recife. The following year it was declared a suffragan of Fortaleza, when that city was elevated to metropolitan status.