Tiruchirapally, Diocese of

TIRUCHIRAPALLY, DIOCESE OF. - It is located in south-eastern India and borders on the dioceses of Madhurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Kumbakonam, Tanjore.

It was erected in 1886, when the Catholic hierarchy was established in India, with the territories that then formed the apostolic vicariate of Maduré founded by Fr. Roberto de Nobili S.J. In seventy years of existence it underwent various dismemberments. Indeed, part in 1893 and part in 1929 (Convention between the Holy See and Portugal, 29 June 1929), the territories of Tanjore and Pudukottah were detached from it, passing to the diocese of St. Thomas of Meliapor, as were those of the Pescheria coast, which in 1923 were erected into a diocese with its seat at Tuticorin. In 1938 that part of the territory which constitutes the present diocese of Madhurai was again dismembered, having passed in fact to the Indian secular clergy. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bombay.

It has an area of 3098 sq. km. with a population of 1,700,000 inhabitants. Of these 120,000 are Catholics, 10,000 Protestants, 1,431,525 Hindus and 105,406 Monettans. The diocesan territory is ecclesiastically divided into 2 rural vicariates, 33 primary stations with residence of the priest and 404 secondary stations without residence; there are about eighty churches and twice as many chapels. Carrying on their apostolate there are 55 secular priests and 41 foreign priests, 11 brothers of the Society of Jesus, 500 sisters for the most part native, belonging to various institutes, and 30 catechists. The schools flourish, with a thousand teachers. Of these 105 are elementary, 20 among middle, teacher-training and vocational schools, and 2 university colleges (of St. Joseph and of the Holy Cross) much frequented. In 7 different houses, moreover, nearly a thousand orphans are maintained. There is furthermore 1 hospital and 2 dispensaries are actively in operation. In the city of T. is the regional Seminary of St. Paul, the direction of which is entrusted to the Society of Jesus and to which seminarians from the neighbouring dioceses come for philosophical and theological studies. There are many Marian congregations for youth, associations of Catholic Action, charitable works and confraternities. Proportionally small, on the other hand, is the number of conversions.

Pompeo Borgna