COLUMBUS, DIOCESE of. - Capital of the State of Ohio in the United States and seat of a suffragan diocese of Cincinnati, comprising the south-eastern part of Ohio, namely 23 counties of Ohio, with an area of 11,310 square miles.
In 1947, out of a population of 1,169,161 inhabitants, there were 105,100 Catholics, under the direction of 168 diocesan priests, 100 religious priests, 8 parishes, 27 chapels, 21 missions, one major and one minor diocesan seminary, a Josephinum pontifical college for the training of priests destined for needy dioceses, 15 high schools, and 50 parish schools. In 1946 there were 2,876 conversions. In addition, 8 male and 19 female religious communities work in the diocese, with flourishing educational institutions.
Within the boundaries of this diocese the Dominicans built, at the beginning of the 19th century, the first Catholic chapel in Ohio, that of St. Joseph (Sommerset) in Perry County. At that time all Ohio had only one diocese, Bardstown (now St-Louis); but shortly afterwards, in 1821,
it was erected as a diocese, together with the see of Cincinnati. Since colonization and emigration had brought many Catholics into these regions, the Holy See, at the request of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866), separated them from the suffragan archdiocese, establishing its seat at C.