LIMOEIRO, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the State of Ceará in Brazil.
Over an area of approximately 20,000 sq. km., the diocese has 295,000 inhabitants, of whom 260,000 are Catholic, distributed across 12 parishes, served by 19 diocesan priests and 8 religious priests; it has a seminary, 3 male religious communities, and 4 female religious communities.
The diocese was established by Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Ad Dominicum* of May 8, 1938, through the division of the archdiocese of Fortaleza. The church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception was elevated to the status of cathedral. The diocese is a suffragan of Fortaleza.
BIBL.: AAS, 30 (1938), pp. 334-36. Virgilio Battezzati