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Diocese of Guarda

*Dioecesis Aegitaniensis*

Diocese da Guarda
Diocese of Guarda; Dioecesis Aegitaniensis; Diocese da Guarda
	Guarda Cathedral
Location
Country	Portugal
Ecclesiastical province	Lisbon
Metropolitan	Patriarchate of Lisbon
Statistics
Area	6,758 km2 (2,609 sq mi)
Population; - Total; - Catholics	(as of 2021); 259,880; 249,250 (95.9%)
Parishes	361
Information
Denomination	Catholic Church
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	6th Century
Cathedral	Guarda Cathedral
Patron saint	Assumption of Mary
Secular priests	97 (Diocesan); 13 (Religious Orders); 21 Permanent Deacons
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Manuel da Rocha Felício
Metropolitan Archbishop	Manuel III
Map
Website
	Website of the Diocese

The Diocese of Guarda (Latin: Dioecesis Aegitaniensis) 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 (Portuguese: Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Consolação) 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.^[1]

Statistics

As per 2014, it pastorally served 253,300 Catholics (96.0% of 263,900 total) on 6,759 km² in 361 parishes and 3 missions with 140 priests (126 diocesan, 14 religious), 17 deacons, 133 lay religious (26 brothers, 107 sisters) and 5 seminarians.

History

Possibly in 550, no later than 569, a Diocese of Egitânia (viz.), 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 that 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.^[1]

Episcopal ordinaries

(all Roman rite) ^[2]

Suffragan Bishops of Guarda

Martinho Pais (1200 – 1225)
Vicente Hispano (1226 – 1248)
Rodrigo Fernandes (1248 – 1267)
Bishop Vasco (1267 – 1278)
João Martins (Juan Martínez), Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1278 – 1301), previously Bishop of Cádiz (Spain) (1266 – 1278.12.24)
Vasco Martins de Alvelos (1302 – death October 23, 1313), previously Bishop of Lamego (Portugal) (1297 – 1302)
Bishop Rodrigo (1313 – 1313)
Bishop Estêvão (1314 – 1316)
Bishop Martinho (1319 – 1322)
Bishop Guterres (1322 – 1326)
Bishop Bartolomeu (1326 – 1345)
Afonso Dinis (1346 – 1347), later Bishop of Évora (Portugal) (1347.10.15 – death 1352)
Bishop Lourenço (1349 – 1356)
Estêvão Tristão (? – 1357)
Gil Cabral de Viana (? – 1360)
Vasco de Menezes (1362 – 1367)
Gonçalo Martins (1367)
Afonso Correia (1367 – 1384)
Vasco de Lamego (? – 1384)
Afonso Ferraz (? – 1396)
Gil (1397 – 1397)
Gonçalo Vasques da Cunha (1397–1426)
Luís da Guerra (1427 – 1458)
João Manuel, Carmelite Order (O. Carm.) (July 9, 1459 – death 1476), previously Titular Bishop of Tiberias (1442.04.18 – 1444.07.20), Bishop of Ceuta (Spain) (1444.07.20 – 1459.07.09)
João Manuel Ferras (March 17, 1477 – death 1478), previously Bishop of Viseu (Portugal) (1526.11.21 – 1547.04.22)
Álvaro de Chaves (1479 – 1481 see below)
Apostolic Administrator Garcia de Menezes (1481 – death 1484), while Bishop of Évora (Portugal) (1471 – 1484)
Álvaro de Chaves (see above 1484 – 1496)
Pedro Vaz Gavião (1496 – 1516)
Apostolic Administrator sede plena Miguel da Silva (1516–1519), later Bishop of Viseu (Portugal) (1526.11.21 – 1547.04.22), created Cardinal-Priest of Ss. XII Apostoli (1542.02.06 – 1543.10.05), transferred Cardinal-Priest of S. Prassede (1543.10.05 – 1552.06.27), also Apostolic Administrator of Massa Marittima (Italy) (1549.05.20 – 1555), repeatedly transferred Cardinal-Priest of S. Marcello (1552.06.27 – 1553.11.29), Cardinal-Priest of S. Pancrazio (1553.11.29 – 1553.12.11), Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria in Trastevere (1553.12.11 – death 1556.06.05)