(CUYABENSIS)
Diocese; suffragan of São Sebastião (Rio de Janeiro), Brazil. The city, founded by miners about 1720, became the capital of the province of Matto Grosso in 1840. The present population is somewhat over 18,000. The prelature of Cuyabá, erected by Bull of Benedict XIV, "Candor lucis aeternæ" (6 Dec., 1745), was raised to the rank of a bishopric (Senhor Bom Jesus de Cuyabá) by Bull of Leo XII, "Sollicita catholici gregis" (15 July, 1826). The diocese embraces the province of Matto Grosso, an area of 532,705 sq. miles, and has a Catholic population of 100,700, with 17 parishes, 20 churches, 12 secular priests and 10 regular.
BATTANDIER, Ann. pont. cath. (1906); HERDER, Konversations-Lex., s.v.; WERNER, Orbis terrarum Cath. (Freiburg im Br., 1890), 213.