FORTALEZA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - In the State of Ceará (Brazil). It is the metropolis of the ecclesiastical province of the aforementioned State, a province that comprises the 3 suffragan sees of Crato, Sobral and Limoeiro, and whose extent coincides with that of the same state.
The area of the archdiocese is about 50,000 sq km, with 1,200,000 inhabitants of whom 1,050,000 are Catholics. There are 48 parishes, 85 diocesan priests and 108 regulars: Franciscans, Capuchins, Jesuits, Lazarists, Salesians, Salvatorians, Mariates, Sacramentines and 11 female religious congregations; the major and minor seminaries are entrusted to the Lazarists. Patron: St. Joseph (feast on the Wednesday of the second week after Easter). F. is also the capital of the State, has 140,000 inhabitants, and is situated at 3° 43' 14" S latitude and 38° 30' 52" W longitude. Gr.
The State of Ceará was visited both by the Spaniards A. Hojeda (1499) and V. Pizon (1500), without however colonizing it, and by the Portuguese, who attempted to settle there during the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century. The missionary expedition among the savages of the region, undertaken by the Jesuits Luigi Figueira and Francesco Pinto, ended with the martyrdom of Pinto. However, Martino Soares Moreno, with 5 soldiers and a priest, succeeded in building at Cape Mucuripe the fortress (as indeed the name of F. means) of St. Sebastian and the chapel of the Madona do Amparo, which constituted the beginnings of the present capital (1611). In the same 17th century Ceará was occupied by the Dutch, already masters of the north-east of Brazil (v.). From that time the history of Ceará is identified with the general history of Brazil; and the part it took in the campaign for independence and for the abolition of slavery is worthy of note. F. was detached from the diocese of Olinda-Recife, forming its own ecclesiastical circumscription with the bull Pro animamens salute of 6 June 1854, and its first bishop was Msgr. Giuseppe Antonio dos Santos (1861-81), founder of the Seminary (1864), apostle of charity during the drought of 1877-1879, and later transferred to the see of S. Salvador. His successor at F. was Msgr. Gioacchino Giuseppe Vieira (1883-1912), replaced in turn by Msgr. Emanuele da Silva Gomes (1912-41), formerly auxiliary of the preceding, who gave a vigorous impulse to the spread of religion throughout the State. Today Ceará is one of the regions of Brazil where Catholicism is most intensely lived. Benedict XV, with the bull Catholicae religionis bonum of 10 Nov. 1915, elevated that see to an archdiocese.
Among the various periodicals published at F., the Catholic daily O Nordeste is to be noted.
The most artistic churches found in the archdiocese are the Cathedral and the church of St. Francis at Canindè.
Bibliography3 works
Maurilio Cesar de Lima