ORANO (ORAN), DIOCESE of. — City and diocese of Algeria, suffragan of the archdiocese of Algiers. It has an area of 67,353 sq. km. and a population of 1,990,729 inhabitants, of whom 360,000 are Catholics; it has 103 parishes served by 103 diocesan priests and 56 religious priests; 10 male and 37 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 302).
The patron saint of the Cathedral is s. Giuseppe, and the feast is celebrated on the day of his patronage.
In the reconstitution of the Churches of Algeria carried out by Gregory XVI, on 9 April 1838, the province of O. formed part of the diocese of Algiers, from which it was detached and erected as a diocese by Pope Pius IX with the bull Supremum pascendi munus of 25 July 1866. The Cathedral, previously dedicated to S. Luigi, was consecrated to the Sacred Heart in 1930.
Tertullian states that in his time Christianity had penetrated as far as the land of the Mauri (Adversus Iudaeos, 7); but the clergy of this region is known only from the Conference of Carthage of 411, at which the bishops Priscus of Quizia, mentioned by s. Agostino, and Germanus of Gypsaria were present; the region was afflicted by the Donatist heresy. Among the bishops assembled at Carthage by King Huneric in 484, 13 from the region of O. are listed.
The Museum of O. houses a rich body of Christian epigraphic material from the region; the oldest inscriptions are those of Altava from the beginning of the 4th century (CIL, VIII, nos. 9862, 9885, 21734, 9892, 9855, 9890), with the expression «discessit», whereas at Guetna one finds «decessit», at Albulas «discessit in pace Domini», at Tiarret «recessit» and «acceptus est»; at Castra Nova «recessit in pace»; at Regias and Tasacurra «nos praecessit in pace dominica»; at Pomaria the tomb is designated as «domus aeternalis», while at Numerus Syrorum it is instead called «domus romula».