PARAÍBA, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the State of P. in Brazil.
It has an area of 64,000 sq km and a population of 679,087 inhabitants, of whom 645,132 are Catholics, distributed
among 34 parishes, served by 45 diocesan and 16 religious priests, two seminaries, 16 male and 19 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 306).
The diocese was created by Pope Leo XIII on 27 July 1892, through partition from the diocese of Olinda. Its first bishop was Mgr. Adaucto de Miranda Henriques. On 6 February 1914, Pope St Pius X raised it to a metropolitan archdiocese, assigning it the dioceses of Caicó, Cajazeiras, Campina Grande, Natal, and Mossoró as suffragans. The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows.
BIBL.: J. B. Lehmann, O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, pp. 262–67.