Diocese of Guarda
The Diocese of Guarda is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church in central eastern Portugal, a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Latin Patriarchate of Lisbon in southern Portugal.
The present episcopal seat is in Guarda Cathedral in the city of Guarda. The diocese also contains the Church of São Luís in Pinhel, once the cathedral of the former diocese of Pinhel, absorbed into the diocese of Guarda in 1881.
Statistics
As per 2014, it pastorally served 253,300 Catholics on 6,759 km² in 361 parishes and 3 missions with 140 priests, 17 deacons, 133 lay religious and 5 seminarians.History
- Possibly in 550, no later than 569, a Diocese of Egitânia, with see in present Idanha-a-Velha, was established under the Kingdom of the Suebi and maintained by the Visigothic Kingdom which absorbed it by 585. However, due to the Moorish conquest, in 715 it was suppressed, its Cathedral of Idanha-a-Velha later converted into a mosque.
- In 1199 the see was nominally restored as Diocese of Guarda, which claimed the apostolic succession but switched the see to Guarda where it built a new cathedral, without awarding even co-cathedral status to the old see.
- On 1549.08.21 it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Portalegre
- On 1881.09.30 it gained territory from the Diocese of Coimbra and gained territory from the suppressed Diocese of Pinhel.
Episcopal ordinaries
- Martinho Pais
- Vicente Hispano
- Rodrigo Fernandes
- Bishop Vasco
- João Martins, Friars Minor , previously Bishop of Cádiz
- Vasco Martins de Alvelos, previously Bishop of Lamego
- Bishop Rodrigo
- Bishop Estêvão
- Bishop Martinho
- Bishop Guterres
- Bishop Bartolomeu
- Afonso Dinis, later Bishop of Évora
- Bishop Lourenço
- Estêvão Tristão
- Gil Cabral de Viana
- Vasco de Menezes
- Gonçalo Martins
- Afonso Correia
- Vasco de Lamego
- Afonso Ferraz
- Gil
- Gonçalo Vasques da Cunha
- Luís da Guerra
- João Manuel, Carmelite Order , previously Titular Bishop of Tiberias, Bishop of Ceuta
- João Manuel Ferras, previously Bishop of Viseu
- Álvaro de Chaves
- Apostolic Administrator Garcia de Menezes, while Bishop of Évora
- Álvaro de Chaves
- Pedro Vaz Gavião
- Apostolic Administrator sede plena Miguel da Silva, later Bishop of Viseu , created Cardinal-Priest of Ss. XII Apostoli, transferred Cardinal-Priest of S. Prassede, also Apostolic Administrator of Massa Marittima , repeatedly transferred Cardinal-Priest of S. Marcello, Cardinal-Priest of S. Pancrazio, Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria in Trastevere
- Cardinal Afonso de Portugal
- Jorge de Melo
- Cristóvão de Castro
- João de Portugal
- Nuno de Noronha
- Archbishop Afonso Furtado de Mendonça
- Francisco de Castro
- Lopo de Sequeira Pereira
- Dinis de Melo e Castro
- Father Diogo Lobo
- Archbishop Pedro de Lencastre
- Álvaro de São Boaventura
- Archbishop Luís da Silva Teles
- João de Mascarenhas
- Archbishop Rodrigo de Moura Telles
- António de Saldanha
- João de Mendonça
- Archbishop José Fialho, O. Cist.
- Bernardo António de Melo Osório
- Jerónimo Rogado de Carvalhal e Silva
- José António Pinto de Mendonça Arrais
- Carlos de São José de Azevedo e Sousa
- Joaquim José Pacheco Sousa
- Manuel Martins Manso
- Tommaso Gomes de Almeida
- Archbishop Manuel Vieira de Matos
- Giuseppe Alves Matoso
- Domenico da Silva Gonçavles
- Policarpo da Costa Vaz
- António dos Santos
- Manuel da Rocha Felício