SAN GIORGIO DI TERRANOVA, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the province of Newfoundland, Canada. Around 1850, a population of about 2,000 souls settled in the western part of the island of Newfoundland, but there were no resident priests, except for the chaplains of French ships.
The first priest to settle in the diocese was the Rev. Alessandro Belanger, but due to the difficulties of travel, he remained permanently at St. George’s Bay. On November 2, 1868, the Rev. Tommaso Sears, a true apostle of the diocese, arrived from the Diocese of Antigonish. On May 9, 1870, the territory was elevated to an apostolic prefecture, and Monsignor Tommaso Sears was appointed apostolic prefect. By the apostolic letter of Leo XIII, dated April 2, 1892, the prefecture was elevated to an apostolic vicariate, and by decree of February 18, 1904, the apostolic vicariate became a diocese.
St. George’s of T., which today is part of Canada, has a Catholic population of 20,351 souls, served by 16 diocesan priests and 6 religious (Redemptorists). There are 39 churches and 130 schools. The metropolitan see is St. George’s of T.