SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, Diocese of — City and diocese of the Argentine Republic in the homonymous department.
The diocese covers an area of 154,670 sq. km. with a population of 688,796 inhabitants, of whom 660,000 are Catholics, distributed across 27 parishes. The clergy consists of 40 diocesan priests and 17 religious; it has one seminary, 4 male religious communities, and 5 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 365). SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO was erected on March 25, 1907, by Pope Pius X as a suffragan of Buenos Aires. The first bishop was Msgr. Juan Martin Janiz. The cathedral is dedicated to St. James the Greater. The diocese is now a suffragan of Paraná.
Bibl.: E. Macpherson, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XIII, p. 462; anon., s. V. ENOCH. Eur. Am., LIV (1927), p. 309.