The Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Cape Verde. It covers the islands of Maio, Santiago, Fogo, and Brava (the Sotavento Islands). Its cathedra is within the Pró-catedral Nossa Senhora da Graça in Praia, Santiago. The diocese is immediately exempt to the Holy See and is not part of any ecclesiastical province.

History

The Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde was created on January 31, 1533, as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Funchal (Azores, Portugal) by Pope Clement VII. Its seat was Ribeira Grande, on Santiago. Bishop Francisco de la Cruz started construction of a cathedral in Ribeira Grande in 1556. Ribeira Grande went into decline in the 18th century, and the seat was moved to Ribeira Brava on São Nicolau in 1786, where it stayed until 1943. A seminary and an episcopal palace were built there. Until September 4, 1940, the diocese covered not only the Cape Verde islands, but also Portuguese Guinea on the African mainland. Portuguese Guinea became a Mission sui iuris, the later Roman Catholic Diocese of Bissau. Since November 2003 the (northern) Barlavento Islands form the separate Roman Catholic Diocese of Mindelo, and the Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde only covers the (southern) Sotavento Islands.

Bishops

The bishops of the Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde:

Sources