SANTA MARIA, DIOCESE OF. – Suffragan of Porto Alegre, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
It has an area of 71,313 sq. km. with a population of 900,000 inhabitants, of whom 680,000 are Catholic. The diocese was created by Pope Pius X on 15 August 1910, with the bull *Praedecesorum nostrorum*; it comprises 84 parishes, with 97 diocesan priests and 105 religious. It has a minor seminary, 48 male religious communities and 83 female. The titular of the diocese is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.
BIBL.: AAS, 2 (1910), pp. 681-82; Ann. Pont. 1752, p. 362; O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, pp. 333-40.