MANCHESTER, DIOCESE of. - City and diocese entirely comprised within the State of New-Hampshire (United States of America).
Over an area of 9,305 square miles it has a population of 491,524 inhabitants, of whom 180,159 are Catholics.
It has 99 parishes, 34 chapels, 25 missions, and 18 stations; it has 207 diocesan priests and 98 regulars; 3 seminaries and religious scholasticates; 6 religious communities, among
which the Benedictine abbey of S. Anselmo; 15 women’s religious communities; 3 colleges and universities, 17 diocesan and parochial high schools, 53 parochial schools; in 1949 there were 466 conversions.
The diocese was created by Pio IX on 4 May 1884, by dismemberment of the diocese of Portland; its first bishop was Mons. D. M. Bradley (1884-1903); then Mons. G. A. Guertin (1907-31) and Mons. J. B. P. Peterson (1932-1944); the present bishop of M. is Mons. M. F. Brady, formerly bishop of Burlington.
The diocese is suffragan to Boston. The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Joseph.