It has an area of 5,199 sq. km., with a population of 178,852 inhabitants, of whom 169,000 are Catholics. It comprises 17 parishes, a minor seminary, 12 diocesan priests and 15 regular clergy, 6 male and 13 female religious communities.
The diocese was erected by Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Ex Apostolico officio* of March 27, 1925, by separating a group of parishes from the dioceses of Barra do Rio Grande and Niterói, elevating to cathedral status the parish church dedicated to the Assumption in the city of Valença, chosen as the episcopal see. The diocese is a suffragan of São Sebastião of Rio de Janeiro. Its first bishop was Msgr. André de Arcoverde Albuquerque Cavalcanti, until 1936.
BIBL.: AAS, 17 (1925), pp. 516-19; Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 441; O Brasil católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, p. 453. SEE Virgínio Battezzati