BUDÉ JOVICE (BUDWEIS), DIOCESE of. - A city of Czechoslovakia, the most important in southern Bohemia, founded in the second half of the thirteenth century at the behest of the king of Bohemia Přemysl Ottocaro II. During the religious struggles arising from the preaching and activity of Giovanni Hus, B. remained entirely Catholic, and within its walls very many persecuted Catholic priests and religious found safe refuge. When King Giorgio di Podiebrady took up arms in defence of the movement aimed at separating Bohemia from the Church of Rome, B. allied itself with the Bohemian nobility against the Hussite king. On 27 Nov. 1785 it was erected as a diocese, suffragan to the archbishopric of Prague.
Within its jurisdiction it comprises, out of 830,000 inhabitants, 730,000 faithful, distributed among 430 parishes, with 430 diocesan priests and 38 regular clergy (1948). Among its monuments worthy of mention are the Catholic Cathedral, with a characteristic tower of black stone; the church of S. Marco, built in the thirteenth century; the Cistercian abbey of Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurt), founded in 1259; and the Dominican convent.