Surigao, Diocese of

SURIGAO, DIOCESE of - City and diocese in the province of Surigao and Agusan in the Philippine Islands.

It has an area of 29,770 sq. km., with a population of 391,400 inhabitants, of whom 300,000 are Catholics, distributed among 29 parishes served by 3 diocesan priests and 49 regular clergy; it has 1 male and 4 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 411). By the apostolic constitution Quo dominici gregis, of 3 June 1939, Pius XII erected the new diocese of S., separating it from the diocese of Gagayan, as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Nome di Gesù or Cebù, and raising to the rank and dignity of cathedral the church dedicated to S. Nicola da Tolentino. At present the diocese is suffragan to the archdiocese of Gagayan.