NELLORE, Diocese of. - In south-eastern India, on the Bay of Bengal.
In 1701 some French Jesuits began to evangelize the territory of the present diocese of N., which was then part of the Carnatic mission, founded by those same fathers.
After the Society of Jesus was suppressed (1773), the Carnatic mission was entrusted to the Fathers of the Foreign Missions of Paris under the name of the Malabar Mission, which later became the Mission of the Coromandel Coast and was elevated (1836) to an apostolic vicariate with its residence at Pondicherry. The territory, in 1843, was transferred to the apostolic vicariate of Madras, where, in 1875, the Mill Hill missionaries arrived, dedicating themselves above all to the Telegu of the districts of Guntur, Kurnool, N., Annantapur, Cuddapah. These districts, together with a part of that of Chittor, detached from the archdiocese of Madras, constituted the first territorial jurisdiction of the diocese of N., erected on 3 July 1928 and entrusted to the Mill Hill Society. At the same time the district of North Arcot (Telegu-speaking) was transferred from the archdiocese of Pondicherry to that of Madras and entrusted to the Salesians. In 1940 the diocese of Guntur was detached from the diocese of N.
The diocese of N. has an area of 83,688 sq km and about 5 million inhabitants (4,500,000 Hindus, 500,000 Muslims, 180,000 Protestants, 25,000 Catholics). The language used is everywhere Telegu. It has 29 primary stations and 184 secondary ones with 9 churches and 184 chapels; it is served by 38 foreign priests and 20 native ones, assisted by 4 brothers, about 60 sisters (more than half of them native) and 150 catechists; 46 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 3 high schools, 2 normal schools, 1 vocational school, 1 women's university college, 1 for the training of catechists; furthermore 1 interdiocesan major seminary and 1 minor seminary. Other works: 2 dispensaries, 2 hospitals, 5 orphanages; 1 printing press, where 3 periodicals are printed; numerous sodalities, pious associations and associations of Catholic Action.
Bibliography3 works
Pompeo Borgna