MATANZAS, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the northern part of the island of Cuba.
It has an area of 8,444 sq. km. with a population of 51,079, of whom 324,970 are Catholics. It comprises 29 parishes served by 19 diocesan priests and 36 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 11 male religious communities and 16 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 266).
The diocese was erected by Pope Pius X by decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation on 10 December 1912. It is a suffragan of San Cristóbal de La Habana. The patrons of the diocese are Sts. Charles and Severinus.
BIBL.: AAS, 5 (1913), p. 94; Enc. Eur. Am., XXXIII, 852-856. Enrico Josi