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