VELLORE, Diocese of. - Located in south-eastern India and erected by decree of 13 Nov. 1952 with territory detached from the archdiocese of Madras.

It comprises the civil district of North Arcot (except the part south of the Cheyyer river, which belongs to the archdiocese of Pondicherry) and the taluks of Palmaner and Tirutani belonging to the civil district of Chittor. It borders on the archdioceses of Madras and Pondicherry and on the dioceses of Salem, Mangalore and Nellore.

It has a population of 2,862,155 inhabitants, of whom 2,500,000 are Hindus, 300 thousand Muslims, 31,102 Catholics and 20 thousand Protestants. It is entrusted to the Salesians of St. John Bosco. The bishop, who is in Ilgeno, resides at V., capital of the civil district of North Arcot with 106,603 inhabitants, of whom 2,000 are Catholics. The first small church erected there dates back to 1626. Ecclesiastically the diocese is divided into 28 primary stations or quasi-parishes and 60 secondary stations. Numerous are the works in favour of male and female youth. The total area amounts to 12,830 sq km. Tamil and Telegu are spoken there. Catholic schools number about seventy with 12,000 pupils. At present 25 Salesian priests, 16 secular priests, 20 European nuns and 41 Indian nuns work there.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Arch. di Prop. Fide, Ponenza n. 23, pos. prot. n. 415/52; MC, 1950, pp. 434-35; L. Del Nevo Squeri, V. musca diocesi indiana, in L'Osservatore Romano, 29 Oct. 1953, p. 3;

Pempero Borgna

@incollection{ec12_vellore_diocesi_di, author = {Borgna, Pompeo}, title = {Vellore, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1174}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vellore-diocesi-di} }

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Vellore, Diocese of

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