PROVIDENCE, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the State of Rhode Island (U.S.A.), suffragan of Boston, today it covers a territory of 1,085 square miles with a total population (1950 census) of 791,896 inhabitants, of whom 435,865 are Catholics.
The French Canadians who immigrated to the State still form today an important part of the Catholic population. In the diocese of P. there are 534 priests, of whom 173 are religious of 11 different congregations, 136 parishes, 119 chapels, 25 missions, 40 women's congregations with 1,716 religious, 2 seminaries and scholasticates, 3 colleges, 3 hospitals. The diocese of P. was erected on 17 February 1872 for the State of Rhode Island and the southeastern part of Massachusetts. This part later became the diocese of Fall River (14 March 1904). The city of P. was also the seat of the diocese of Hartford, erected by Gregory XVI on 28 November 1843, until 1847.
The first traces of Catholicism that can be found date back to 1780, when the French army led by Rochambeau encamped at Newport and at P.; it is known that there were chaplains with the armed forces. Shortly afterward (February 1783) the colonial legislative Assembly annulled the law against the Roman Catholic religion. The revolution of Guadeloupe that followed the French Revolution caused the immigration of a certain number of French families to Newport and to P. The first Mass, celebrated in a church built for the purpose, was said at P. in November 1837.
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Gastone Carrière