SAINT THOMAS, Diocese of. - Diocese and island of the same name in Portuguese Guinea (Africa). The diocese has an area of 964 sq km with a population of 60,540 inhabitants, of whom 36,149 are Catholics; it has 10 parishes served by 8 regular priests and 1 diocesan priest (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 367).
The territory of this diocese consists of the Portuguese islands of S. T. and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea, and it is a suffragan of Loanda (bull Solemnibus conventionibus, 4 Sept. 1940). Vacant since the 19th century, but not extinguished, it is provided for in the person of the archbishop of Loanda, who governs it by means of a vicar general.
On 17 June 1532 John III, King of Portugal, entrusted to d. Martino del Portogallo the task of asking the Holy Father for the erection of the diocese of S. T., which was to be constituted from the islands of S. T., S. Antão, Ferdinando del Pò, S. Elena and Buon Anno (Ano Bom) and from the mainland from S. Giorgio della Mina, where the diocese of Cape Verde ended, as far as the Cape of Good Hope. The King further begged the Holy See to annex to the episcopal mensa of the new diocese the Cistercian monastery of S. Giovanni di Tarauca. On 31 Jan. 1533 Clement VII deferred the King's request but only in part; the bulls were not sent in time. But Paul IV, with the bull Aepuam reputamus (3 Nov. 1534), carried out all the determinations of his predecessor as regards the erection of the cathedral of S. T. The diocese was constituted by the continental territory from the river of S. Andrea, near the Cape of Palms, on the coast of Guinea, where the diocese of Cape Verde ended, as far as the Cape of Good Hope and furthermore as far as the Cape of the Needles; by the islands of S. T., S. Antão, Ferdinando del Pò, S. Elena and Buon Anno (Ano Bom) and by the part of the Ocean comprised to the West between two parallels, one from the mouth of the river of S. Andrea, the other from the Cape of the Needles, with all the islands already discovered or that might be discovered in the future. The diocese was a suffragan of Funchal and had 12 canons and 5 dignities. Later the bishoprics of Congo and Angola were detached from this diocese, now suppressed with the establishment of the new dioceses (bull Solemnibus conventionibus).
Bibliography3 works
Carmo da Silva