QUILON, DIOCESE of. — It is situated in south-western India. Tradition attributes to St Thomas the Apostle the establishment of a church at Q.
It is certain that Christians were found there from remote times; they later followed the Eastern schism. The diocese of Q. was erected by Giovanni XII in 1329. In 1544 St Francis Xavier founded there a Christian community that withstood various persecutions, and whose descendants constitute the oldest nucleus of the Catholics of the present diocese. Under Portuguese rule, the territory of the ancient diocese passed to Cochin, and then to the Apostolic Vicariate of Malabar; from the latter, in 1854, the Apostolic Vicariate of Q. was detached, which in 1886, with the establishment of the hierarchy in India, was elevated to a diocese. In 1939, when the territory was again reduced through the erection of the Diocese of Trivandrum of the Latins, the Diocese of Q. was entrusted to the secular clergy. It is suffragan to Verapoly.
At present the diocese has an area of 3465 sq. km. and a population of 1,891,900, of whom 1,242,960 are pagans, 174,600 Muslims, 215,870 schismatics, 131,790 Protestants, 101,000 Latin Catholics, and 21,500 Catholics of the Syro-Malabar rite. There are 85 priests, all indigenous; 72 belong to the secular clergy and 13 to the Capuchin Order. There are about fifteen brothers and approximately 150 sisters, both national and foreign. There is only a minor seminary. There are 58 elementary schools, 15 middle schools, 5 secondary schools, and 1 vocational school. There are 3 hospitals and various dispensaries, 1 orphanage, and 1 foundling home. There are 46 primary stations; the churches number 70 and the chapels 72. A small printing press publishes the periodical « Catholica Actio ». The associations of Catholic Action are flourishing.