GOIÁS, ARCHDIOCESE of. - Archdiocese and city, capital of the State of the same name in the centre of the Brazilian plateau. It has an area of 227,230 sq. km., with a population of 479,661, of whom 455,677 are Catholics, distributed among 35 parishes with 19 diocesan and 60 regular priests, 1 seminary, 11 male and 14 female religious communities (1949).
Erected as a prelature on 6 Dec. 1745, it was raised to a diocese by Leo XII on 15 July 1826, as a suffragan first of Bahia, then of Mariana. Pope Pius XI, by the apostolic constitution Quæ in factiorem dated 18 Nov. 1932, erected G. as a metropolitan see, by dismemberment from the ecclesiastical province of Mariana, assigning to it as suffragans the diocese of Porto Nazionale and the prelatures nullitas of Bananal, Jataí, and S. Giuseppe di Alto Tocantins. The population is chiefly engaged in cattle-raising and agriculture.
The Cathedral is dedicated to s. Anna; other churches are those of the Buona Morte, the Carmine, the Rosario, and S. Francesco; the asylum of S. Vincenzo de' Paoli is sumptuous.