POUSO ALEGRE. - City and diocese in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It has a population of 530,000 inhabitants, of whom 525,000 are Catholics, distributed in 34 parishes, served by 36 diocesan priests and 16 religious; it has a seminary, 3 male and 5 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 328).
The diocese was created by Pope Leo XIII with the bull *Regio latissime patens* of 4 August 1900, by separation from the dioceses of S. Paulo and Mariana. It was first a suffragan of Rio de Janeiro, then from 1906 of Mariana. On 3 February 1916, part of its territory was separated to create the new diocese of Guaxupé. The first bishop was Msgr. J. Nery, transferred in 1908 to Campinas. The cathedral is dedicated to Senhor Bom Jesus dos Martires; the diocese has as its patron Saint Sebastian.