Portalegre, Diocese of

PORTALEGRE, Diocese of. - The diocese of P. is located to the northeast of Lisbon, almost at the Spanish frontier, in Portugal. It has its episcopal see in the city of the same name and belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Lisbon. It has an area of about 9,710 sq. km. with a population of 348,184 inhabitants, of whom 319,080 are Catholics, distributed in 154 parishes, served by 159 diocesan priests; it has 16 communities of religious women (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 323).

The erection of the diocese of P. is due to the solicitude of John III, king of Portugal. In fact, when the episcopal see of Guarda fell vacant with the death of Jorge de Mello (1519-48), he forwarded a request to the Holy See that a new diocese be constituted by detaching the region south of the Tagus from the diocese of Guarda and the small town of Arronches from the monastery of S. Croce of Coimbra. Paul III created the new diocese with the bull Pro excellenti Apostolicae Sedis of 21 Aug. 1549, and for the choice of the Cathedral he left the two bishops who were to be deputed for that purpose free to decide. Pope Clement XI with the bull Gregis dominici cura (3 Jan.

1718) made the bishopric of P. a suffragan of the archbishop of Lisbon (v.) orientale. Later, when the two dioceses of Lisbon were unified by Benedict XIV into the patriarchate of Lisbon, the diocese of P. remained a suffragan of this.

Carmo da Silva