Serena, La, DIOCESE of (DE SERENA, SERENOPOLITANA), embracing Atacama and Coquimbo provinces (Chile), suffragan of Santiago, erected 1 July, 1840. The boundaries of the diocese were definitively established on 26 March, 1844; on 5 June, 1844, the first bishop, José Agustin de la Sierra, was installed. Mgr. Jara, fifth bishop, was appointed on 31 Aug., 1909. "The diocesan territory exceeds 60,000 sq. miles, with a population (Catholic) of about 250,000. There are 64 secular, 35 regular priests; 30 parishes; 145 churches and chapels. The town of La Serena, with about 20,000 inhabitants, has 20 churches (including an imposing cathedral, erected 1844-60); -boasts a seminary with 160 students; affords good educational facilities— notably in technical branches; and supports hospitals, an orphan asylum, lazaretto, and foundling home. Sisters of Mercy, of the Good Shepherd, and of the Congregation of Picpus are active.
Ann. Pont. Cath. (1910); La Provincia Eclesidstica Chilena Erección de sus Obispados y División en Parroquias (Freiburg, 1895), xi, xviii, 201, xx, 267 sqq., and passim; Gerarchia Cattolica (6owe, 1910); WERNER, Orbis Terrarum Catholicus (Freiburg,
P. J. Macauley.