SANTA CROCE DELLA SIERRA (SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA), DIOCESE of. — City and diocese of the State of S. Cruz in Bolivia (South America). The diocese comprises the departments of S. Cruz and Beni.
It has an area of 126,000 square miles, with a population of 150,000 inhabitants, all Catholics; it has 20 parishes served by 14 diocesan priests and 23 religious priests; it has a seminary, 4 male and 4 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 361). The diocese was erected on 5 July 1605 as a suffragan of Lima, but in 1609 it came under the jurisdiction of the diocese of La Plata, the present archdiocese of Sucre. The first bishop was Mgr Antonio Calderon. The missionary work of the Jesuits in the seventeenth century, led by Fr Cipriano Baraza, for the conversion of the Indians, should be remembered. The Cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Cross.