Diocese of Lamego

Diocese of Lamego Dioecesis Lamacensis Diocese de Lamego
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption
Location
Country	Portugal
Ecclesiastical province	Braga
Metropolitan	Archdiocese of Braga
Statistics
Area	2,848 km2 (1,100 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2013) 160,700 157,500 (98.0%)
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	569
Cathedral	Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	António José da Rocha Couto, SMP
Metropolitan Archbishop	Jorge IV
Emeritus Bishops	Jacinto Tomás de Carvalho Botelho Bishop Emeritus (2000-2011)
Map
Website
http://www.diocese-lamego.pt

The Diocese of Lamego (Latin: Dioecesis Lamacensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Portugal.

Lamego became Catholic when the Visigothic king Reccared I converted to Catholicism. According to local tradition, the city of Lamego received the Gospel from either St. James the Greater or St. Paul. Some Portuguese authorities name St. Peter of Rates as the first Bishop of Lamego during the middle of the 1st Century, and later the first Bishop of Braga, purportedly appointed by St. James, though this theory is probably a myth, given that it is proven that St. James was celebrating Easter in Jerusalem precisely the same year.

The true origins of the diocese start with Bishop Sardinário (or Sardinarius), whose signature from the Second Council of Braga in 572 exists among the suffragan bishops of Archbishop Martin of Braga. Just three years before this, at the Council of Lugo in 569, several new dioceses were created. Hence, it is very likely that the Diocese of Lamego was established between 569 and 572. Very little about the diocese's early history. Some of the early bishops' names are known, but nearly nothing else: Philippus (c. 580-89), Profuturus (c. 630-38), Witaricus (c. 646), and Filimirus (653-56).

From 693 to 876 it is unknown who the bishops of Lamego were. Upon the Moorish invasion in 714, the Bishop of Lamego was forced to flee to the region of Asturias in the northern Iberian Peninsula. In 876, the first known Bishop of Lamego in nearly 200 years is Argimirus, who was still reigning as late as 899, when he partook in the consecration of the cathedral of Compostela. Argimirus was known to have resided in the Diocese of Lamego, but it is uncertain whether other bishops of Lamego actually stayed in the city. It is likely that they were only titular bishops after the invasion, especially because the Moors destroyed the city in 982.