PARNAIBA, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the State of Piauí in Brazil.
It has an area of 25,679 sq. km and a population of 275,214 inhabitants, of whom 275,000 are Catholics. It has 13 parishes, with 9 diocesan priests and 6 religious priests, 1 male and 4 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 307).
The diocese was created by Pope Pius XII by the apostolic constitution Ad Dominici gregis of 16 December 1944, through the division of the diocese of Piauí, which was simultaneously elevated to metropolitan dignity and given the changed name of Teresina, of which P. is a suffragan. The parish church dedicated to Our Lady of Victory became the cathedral of the new diocese. The first bishop was Msgr. Filippo Condurò Pacheco.
BIBL.: AAS, 37 (1945), pp. 133–35; J. B. Lehmann, O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, pp. 268–70. Virginio Battezzati