The Diocese of

São João del Rei SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of ...

() is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

ecclesiastical jurisdiction or

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It is a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

of the

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

Archdiocese of Juiz de Fora. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

is the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, São João del Rei, a

minor basilica Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectura ...

, dedicated to

Our Lady of the Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar () is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40, AD 40 while he was pre ...

, in the city of

São João del-Rei São João del-Rei is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. Founded in 1713 in homage to king John V of Portugal, the city is famed for its historic Portuguese colonial architecture. The current population is estimated at 90,225 i ...

History

On May 21, 1960, the Diocese of São João del-Rei was established as ''Dioecesis Sancti Ioannis a Rege'' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

), on territories split off from the Diocese of Campanha,

Archdiocese of Mariana The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mariana (, ) is an archdiocese based in the city of Mariana, Minas Gerais, Mariana in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Geography The archdiocese owns the parishes in seventy nine municipalities in four m ...

, and (then) Diocese of Juiz de Fora.

Statistics

, its pastoral services reached 506,000 Catholics (85.1% of the total population, 594 800), on 9 503 km², and 40 parishes.

Religious persons

* 72 priests: 48 diocesan, 24 religious; * 2

deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

; *

109 lay religious: 57 brothers, 52 sisters; * 9 seminarians.

Ordinaries

* Delfim Ribeiro Guedes (1960-07-23 – retired 1983-12-07), died 1985; previously Bishop of Leopoldina (Brazil) (1943-06-26 – 1960-07-23) *

Antônio Carlos Mesquita Antônio Carlos Mesquita (Itapecerica, state of Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 ...

(1983-12-16 – 1996-06-26), died 2005; previously

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Tamada (1974-04-08 – 1977-03-06) as

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of Oliveira (Brazil) (1974-04-08 – 1977-03-06) and

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

''sede plena'' of Oliveira (Brazil) (1974-04-08 – 1977-03-06), succeeding as Bishop of Oliveira (Brazil) (1977-03-06 – 1983-12-16) * Waldemar Chaves de Araújo (1996-06-26 – retired 2010.05.26), previously Bishop of Teófilo Otoni (Brazil) (1989-11-18 – 1996-06-26) * Célio de Oliveira Goulart,

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; Post-nominal letters, postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a Mendicant orders, mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis ...

(O.F.M.) (2010-05-26 – death 2018-01-19), previously Bishop of Leopoldina (Brazil) (1998-06-24 – 2003-07-09), Bishop of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim (Brazil) (2003-07-09 – 2010-05-26) * José Eudes Campos do Nascimento (2018-12-12 - present).

Personalities

* Nhá Chica (1808-1895), lay woman * José Maria Xavier (1819-1887), priest, composer of sacred music *

Antônio de Almeida Lustosa Antônio de Almeida Lustosa (11 February 1886 - 14 August 1974) was a Brazilian people, Brazilian Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Salesians of Don Bosco. Lustosa served in two dioceses and two archdioc ...

(1886-1974), Archbishop of Fortaleza * Miguel Afonso de Andrade Leite (1912-1976), priest *

Lucas Moreira Neves Lucas Moreira Neves, OP (16 September 1925 – 8 September 2002) was a Brazilian Catholic prelate who served as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops from 1998 to 2000. He previously served as Archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia from 19 ...

(1925-2002),

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

* Benigna Victima de Jesus (1907-1981), nun who lived in

Lavras Lavras is a municipality in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Located at an altitude of 919 m, it has a population of 104,761 inhabitants (2022). The area of the municipality is 564,495 km2. The average annual temperature is 19.6°C and t ...

* Martin de Porres Ward (1918-1999),

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

missionary

References

Sources and External links

GCatholic.org, with Google map - data for all sections

Diocese website (Portuguese)
Roman Catholic dioceses in Brazil Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Juiz de Fora Religious organizations established in 1960 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 20th century 1960 establishments in Minas Gerais {{Brazil-RC-diocese-stub