SANTOS, Diocese of. - Suffragan of S. Paulo, in the homonymous state in Brazil.
It has an area of 18,999 sq. km. and a population of 377,000 inhabitants, of whom 300,000 are Catholics, with 26 parishes served by 25 diocesan priests and 28 religious priests. There are 7 male and 16 female religious communities.
Erected by Pope Pius XI on 4 July 1924, with the apostolic constitution Ubi praesules, by separation from the archdiocese of S. Paulo; its first bishop was Msgr. José Maria Pereira Lara. It has a preparatory seminary. The titular of the diocese is Our Lady of the Apparition (Abarecida). Pope Pius XI, with an apostolic letter of 8 July 1925, erected into a conventual priory the Benedictine monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in S.
Bibl.: AAS, 17 (1925), pp. 498-500, 530-31; O Brasil católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, p. 341; Ann. Pont. 1951, p. 368.