MANCHESTER, DIOCESE OF. - A city and diocese entirely within the State of New Hampshire (United States of America).
Within an area of 9,305 square miles, it has a population of 491,524 inhabitants, of whom 180,159 are Catholics.
It comprises 99 parishes, 34 chapels, 25 missions and 18 stations; it has 207 diocesan priests and 98 religious priests; 3 seminaries and religious schools; 6 religious communities, including the Benedictine abbey of St. Anselm; 15 female religious communities; 3 colleges and universities, 17 diocesan and parochial high schools, 53 parochial schools; in 1949 there were 466 conversions.
The diocese was erected by Pius IX on 4 May 1884, by separation from the Diocese of Portland; its first bishop was Mgr. D. M. Bradley (1884-1903); then Mgr. G. A. Guertin (1907-31) and Mgr. J. B. P. Peterson (1932-1944); the present bishop of Manchester is Mgr. M. F. Brady, formerly bishop of Burlington.
The diocese is a suffragan of Boston. The cathedral is dedicated to St. Joseph.