Diocese of Viseu Dioecesis Visensis Diocese de Viseu |
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Location | |
Country | Portugal |
Ecclesiastical province | Braga |
Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Braga |
Statistics | |
Area | 3,400 km2 (1,300 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2010) 270,000 261,700 (96.9%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | 572 |
Cathedral | Viseu Cathedral |
Patron saint | St Theotonius |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Ilídio Pinto Leandro |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Jorge IV |
Map | |
Website | |
Website of the Diocese |
The Portuguese Catholic diocese of Viseu (Latin: Dioecesis Visensis) is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Braga. Its see at Viseu is in the Centro Region. The current bishop is Ilídio Pinto Leandro.
The see at Viseu dates from the sixth century and including the doubtful prelates, and those elected but not confirmed, it has had eighty- three bishops. The list begins with Remissol (572-585) who attended the Second Council of Braga, but was exiled by the Arian King Leovigild. Tunila succeeded him and abjured Arianism at the Third Council of Toledo; bishops of Viseu were present at the fourth, sixth, eighth, twelfth, and thirteenth councils of Toledo.
There was a vacancy of fifteen years from 665 to 680; Theofredo was bishop in 693. Then, following the Muslim conquest, Viseu remained without a bishop for nearly two centuries. Theodomiro assisted at the consecration of the church of Santiago de Compostela in 876, and at the Council of Oviedo in 877 and was followed by Gundemiro in 905. In this century Vizseu was under Islamic rule for 76 years, and at first had no bishop, but afterwards its prelates, Gomes and Sisnando (1020-1064), resided in Oviedo. From 1110 to 1144 the diocese was governed by priors appointed by the bishops of Coimbra, in virtue of a Bull of Pope Paschal II; among them was Saint Theotonius, afterwards patron of the city. The line of bishops began again with Odorio.