LOURENÇO MARQUES [MAPUTO], ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Capital of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique (East Africa). It has an area of 164,011 sq km with 1,290,315 inhabitants, of whom 104,770 are Catholics; it has 31 parishes, 24 diocesan priests and 41 regulars, a seminary, 20 male religious communities and 19 female (Ann. Pontif., 1951, p. 253).

It may be said that the evangelization of Mozambique began in 1506, when the Portuguese, having just landed there, built the fort of Sofala. Pius IV, with the bull Superna dispositione of 12 February 1563, granted the king of Portugal the faculty of appointing ecclesiastical administrators for the kingdoms of Ormus, Mozambique and Sofala, belonging to the diocese of Goa. At the request of Philip II, the pontiff Paul V, with the brief In supereminenti of 21 January 1612, detached Mozambique, from Cape Guardafui as far as the Cape of Good Hope, from the diocese of Goa and made it a vicariate or spiritual administration. Domenico Torrado, titular bishop of Sale, was the first administrator of Mozambique. The seat of the prelature was first at Sena and then on the island of Mozambique.

At the end of the 18th century, the Jesuits had several missions and schools in Mozambique, at Sena and at Tete. But in 1757, with their expulsion from Portugal and its colonies, the missionary needs of Mozambique were soon forgotten. At the request of Maria I, queen of Portugal, Pius VI granted that the prelates of Mozambique be consecrated bishops.

With the missionary agreement signed by the Holy See with Portugal on 6 May 1940, the prelature was suppressed and the three dioceses of L. M., Beira and Nampula were created. Pius XII, with the apostolic constitution Solemnibus conventionibus of 4 September 1940, sanctioned the establishment of the three dioceses and erected L. M. into an archdiocese, having as suffragans the dioceses of Beira and Nampula. In the Consistory of 18 February 1946 Teodosio Clemente De Gouveia, the first archbishop of L. M., was created cardinal.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: AAS, 32 (1940), p. 235 ff.; 33 (1941), p. 14 ff.; 38 (1946), p. 103 ff.; Portugal Missionario, Lisbon 1928; F. De Almeida, Historia de Igreja em Portugal, III, part 1, Coimbra 1923, p. 90 ff.; id., ibid., IV, part 1, ibid. 1923, p. 41.

Carmo da Silva

@incollection{ec7_lorenzo_marques_lourenco_marqu, author = {Da, Silva Carmo}, title = {Lorenzo Marques (Lourenço Marques), arcidiocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1555--1556}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lorenzo-marques-lourenco-marques-arcidiocesi-di} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Lourenço Marques [Maputo], Archdiocese of

About this entry