PINHEIRO. – City and nullius prelature in the State of Maranhão in Brazil.
The territory of the prelature extends over 44,463 sq. km between the Bay of São Marcos on the Atlantic and the Rio Garupy. It has a population of 169,820 inhabitants, of whom 140,000 are Catholics. It comprises 8 parishes served by 1 diocesan priest and 10 religious priests, and 4 male religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 632). The prelature was created by Pope Pius XII through the apostolic constitution Ad maius Christifidelium of 22 July 1939, by detaching territory from the archdiocese of S. Luigi del Maranhão and from the nullius prelature of S. Giuseppe de Grajahù, and elevating to prelatic rank and dignity the church dedicated to S. Ignazio di Lojola existing in the city of P. The prelature is suffragan to S. Luigi del Maranhão. In the city of Alcantara, formerly the seat of the Capitania of Cuma, the Carmine church is noteworthy.