ORAN, Diocese of. - City and diocese of Algeria, suffragan of the archdiocese of Algiers. It has an area of 67,353 sq km with a population of 1,990,729 inhabitants, of whom 360,000 are Catholics; it has 103 parishes served by 103 diocesan priests and 56 regulars; 10 male religious communities and 37 female (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 302).
The patron of the Cathedral is St. Joseph, and his feast is celebrated on the day of his patronage.
In the reconstitution of the Churches of Algeria by Gregory XVI, on 9 April 1838, the province of O. formed part of the diocese of Algiers, from which it was separated and erected as a diocese by Pope Pius IX with the bull Supremum pascendi munus of 25 July 1866. The Cathedral, already dedicated to St. Louis, was consecrated in 1930 to the Sacred Heart.
Tertullian affirms 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 St. Augustine, and Germanus of Gypsaria are found present; the region was ravaged by the Donatist heresy. Among the bishops assembled at Carthage by King Huneric in 484, 13 from the region of O. appear.
In the Museum of O. a rich harvest of Christian epigraphic material from the region is collected; 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», while 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 at Tasacurra «nos praecessit in pace dominica»; at Pomaria the tomb is designated as «domus aeternalis», while at Numerus Syrorum it is called «domus romula».
Bibliography3 works
Enrico Josi