SAN GIACINTO, Diocese of. - Diocese and city in the province of Quebec (Canada).
St. Hyacinth is an industrial city located 35 miles from Montreal. The Fathers of the First Council of Quebec petitioned the Holy See to erect a diocese at St. Hyacinth, which was done by Pius IX on June 7, 1852, by separating territory from Montreal and Quebec. In 1874 (Aug. 28), a portion of the territory was detached from St. Hyacinth to form the Diocese of Sherbrooke at the request of Msgr. Charles Larocque, the third bishop of St. Hyacinth. He established the first Dominican house in Canada in 1873. The diocese supports a flourishing college founded in 1811 and a major seminary opened in 1935. The total population is 185,700 inhabitants, of whom 175,088 are Catholic (173,081 of French-speaking background). There are 272 diocesan priests, 87 religious (9 congregations), 2,039 sisters (16 congregations), and 662 brothers belonging to six different congregations.
A suffragan of Montreal at the time of its creation, the diocese passed on March 2, 1951, under the jurisdiction of the new metropolitan see of Sherbrooke.