ARCHDIOCESE OF DIAMANTINA. - In Brazil, it is the metropolis of the ecclesiastical province of the same name, which occupies the entire northern part of the State of Minas Gerais, with the dioceses of Montes Claros, Arassuai and the nullius prelature of Paracatù.
Its area is 62,094 sq km, with 631,000 inhabitants, of whom 630,500 are Catholics. It comprises 66 parishes, with 55 diocesan priests and 35 religious (Franciscans, Capuchins, Lazarists and Redemptorists). There are also 2 female religious Congregations (1948). It has its own major and minor seminary, and St. Anthony of Padua as patron.
D. arose through the work of the bandeirantes in search of gold and diamonds, of which the region is rich, under the original name of Tijuco, in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its current name dates back to 1858, when it was raised to the rank of city. During the colonial and imperial period, its history is that of the State of Minas Gerais and of the diocese of Mariana, from which it was detached on 6 June 1854, by the bull of Pius IX Gravissimum sollicitudinis. Ten years later its first bishop, Giannantonio dos Santos (1864-1905), assumed its governance; in the difficult circumstances of that time, he succeeded in founding the seminary (1867), entrusting it to the Lazarists. He was succeeded by his coadjutor Gioacchino Silverio dos Santos (1905-33). On 28 June 1917, Benedict XV, with the constitution Quandocumque se presènis, elevated D. to an archdiocese; thanks to the convocation of 3 diocesan synods, it experienced a great religious increase.
Besides its first 2 bishops, among the Catholics of the archdiocese the figure of Gioacchino Felicio dos Santos, physician and journalist (d. 1931), is worthy of note.
The greatest center of religious culture is the seminary. For the laity, moreover, as in other large cities of Brazil, there exists the «Centro D. Vital». The official organ of the diocesan press is the weekly Estrela Polar.
All the churches of the metropolis may be considered notable religious monuments, since they were all built during the apogee of colonial art.
Bibliography3 works
Maurilio Cesar de Lima