MACAPÀ. - Prelature *nullius* in the federal territory of Amapá (Brazil), suffragane of Belém do Pará.
It has an area of 143,716 sq. km. with a population of 40,000, of whom 38,000 are Catholic. It comprises 4 parishes with 30 churches and 14 priests (Ann. Pont. 1951, p. 360).
The prelature was erected by Pope Pius XII with the Apostolic Constitution *Sedi* of 1 Feb. 1949, by separating from the *prelatura nullius* of Santarém the territory of the federal state of Amapá, constituting it as the seat of the new prelature in the city of M., and elevating the local church of St Joseph to the status of a prelatic church.
BIBL.: AAS, 41 (1949), pp. 402-404. Virgilio Battestati