VACARÍA. — Prelature nullius in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).
It covers an area of 17,287 sq. km. and has 145,015 inhabitants, of whom 140,390 are Catholics. It has 17 parishes, with about thirty Capuchin religious and a Seraphic Seminary at Villa Ypé. The prelature was created on 8 September 1934 by Pope Pius XI, through the division of the archdiocese of Porto Alegre, with its see established in the city of V. and the local church of N. Signora da Oliveira raised to the status of prelature. Its first and present prelate is H.E. Fray Candido M. de Caxias, O.F.M.C.
BIBL.: AAS, 27 (1935), pp. 336–38; Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 675; O Brasil Catolico 1947, Iuiz de Fora 1947, p. 491 ff. Virginio Battezzati