SAN TOMMASO DI MELIAPOR, DIOCESE OF
In India, a suffragan diocese of Goa. It was erected in 1606 and takes its name from the place where, according to tradition, the Apostle St. Thomas was buried after his martyrdom and where the cathedral dedicated to his memory arose.
The locality of S. Thomé de M. (Meliapor in Tamil means "city of peacocks") is now part of the city of Madras. Originally the diocese of M. was an integral part of that of Cochin, from which it was later separated, receiving the following territories: the Fishery Coast, the Coromandel Coast, Bihar, Orissa, Bengal, and ancient Pegu. By the Concordat of 23 June 1886 and subsequent notes, the diocese came to consist of two continuous sections of territory; the bishop also had ordinary jurisdiction over several exempt churches and congregations scattered throughout southern India and Bengal. The profound changes that occurred in Portugal and in the religious life of India, especially after the First World War, made the execution of the aforementioned Concordat difficult, so that by the Convention of 11 April 1929 the extent of the diocese was limited to two separate and distinct territories: that of S. Thomé—situated in the civil district of Chingleput between the Coomun River to the north and the Palar River to the south, the Bay of Bengal to the east, and the North Arcot district to the west—and that of Tanjore, about three hundred miles distant from the first, with the addition of the two taluks of Alangudi and Tirumayan in the former state of Pudukkottah, part of the taluk of Nannilam, the taluks of Mayavaram and Shiyali, and part of the taluk of Chidambaram in South Arcot.
It has an area of 14,130 sq. km. and a population of 3,000,000, of whom 120,000 are Catholics. It is divided into 7 vicariates comprising 63 parishes, 2 primary stations with a total of 124 priests, all Indian, and 438 religious women from various institutes. It has 2 seminaries, a major and a minor, a collegiate university, and well-attended schools of all levels, 39 charitable and social institutions.
By virtue of the agreement of 18 July 1950 between the Holy See and Portugal, the dioceses of Cochin and S. T. of M. ceased to belong to the Portuguese Patronage and passed from the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs to that of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. By a decree of Propaganda dated 13 November 1952, the part of the diocese of S. T. of M. included in the civil district of Chingleput was incorporated into the ecclesiastical circumscription of Madras, which assumed the name of the archdiocese of Madras-Meliapor, while the remaining part became the new diocese of Tanjore.