ALBANY, DIOCESI DI - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. I, p. 405

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

Diocese of Albany. In the United States of America, state of New York, a suffragan of the archdiocese of New York. Erected on 23 April 1847, it was reduced on 31 January 1872 to form the diocese of Ogdensburg, and again on 22 November 1886 to constitute that of Syracuse. Its present area is more than 10,419 sq km. The diocese of Albany has 284,124 Catholics out of a total population of 989,756; 351 diocesan priests and 220 regular clergy.

On this territory the Jesuit martyrs St René Goupil and St Isaac Jogues (v. CANADIAN MARTYRS) were martyred in the 17th century, and the Indian virgin Catherine Tekakwitha (v.) was baptized. Its first bishop was John McCloskey (1847–64), who became cardinal archbishop of New York and died on 10 October 1885.

Bibl.: J. D. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, IV, New York 1886–92, pp. 478–84; The Catholic Historical Review, 2 (1916–17), p. 141; J. H. O’Donnell, The Catholic Hierarchy of the United States (1790–1923), Washington 1923; M. J. Scott, Isaac Jogues, Missioner and Martyr, New York 1927; J. J. Birch, The Saint of the Wilderness, New York 1936; J. Walsh, s.V. in Cath. Enc., I (rev. ed., 1936), pp. 251–54.