Catholic Intelligence

Diocese of Guarda

Aegitanien(sis)

The Diocese of Guarda is a Latin rite see in central eastern Portugal, suffragan to the Patriarchate of Lisbon, with roots in the historic see of Egitânia and re-established at Guarda in 1199. Bishop José Miguel Barata Pereira took office in March 2025.

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
1199
Latin
Aegitanien(sis)
Patron
Assumption of Mary
Annuario code
001001542

The see in figures

Catholics
249,250
Population
259,880
Catholic share
95.9%

of the people living within its bounds

Priests
83
Catholics per priest
3,003
Extent
6,758 km²
Catholics per km²
37

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Bishop
José Miguel Barata Pereira

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

Guarda Cathedral stands in Guarda, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

The province of Lisbon

A suffragan of Lisbon.

The sees of this province:

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

Central eastern Portugal is the territory of the Diocese of Guarda (Latin: Dioecesis Aegitaniensis), a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church and a suffragan within the ecclesiastical province of the Latin Patriarchate of Lisbon in southern Portugal. Guarda Cathedral (Portuguese: Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Consolação), in the city of Guarda, holds the present episcopal seat. Within the diocese also stands the Church of São Luís in Pinhel, once the cathedral of the former diocese of Pinhel, which was absorbed into Guarda in 1881.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

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Sources

The see's own website · Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].