ELPHIN, DIOCESE OF. — In Ireland; it comprises the counties of Roscommon and parts of Sligo and Galway. The episcopal see is at Sligo; it is under the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Tuam.
The diocese covers 3,200 sq. km. with a population of 103,500 inhabitants, of whom 100,000 are Catholics. It has 33 parishes served by 108 diocesan priests and 11 regulars; it has 7 male and 14 female religious communities, and one seminary (Diocesan College of the Immaculate Conception, 1949).
The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick and the Book of Armagh provide the earliest records of the territory of Corcoghlan; there St. Patrick around the year 435 founded a church and a monastery in the place called E., i.e., the rock of the clear spring. The first bishop was Assicus and the second Bite. Assicus is remembered as the goldsmith of St. Patrick; from him derives the Celtic artistic school that produced precious liturgical furnishings, such as the crosier of Cong, the Ardagh Chalice, etc.
Among the bishops of E. are to be recalled Domnall O' Dubhthaigh (O' Duffy), d. 1036, Flanachan of Dubhthaigh, d. 1168. In the period of the Reformation and afterwards, G. Brann, J. Max O' Higgins, O' Crean; and the martyrs O' Healy and Galvarius.