FERNÁNDEZ, Diocese of. — In Ireland, it comprises almost the entire county of Wexford and part of that of Wicklow, with an area of about 3,000 sq. km. It is a suffragan of Dublin. It has a population of 98,421 inhabitants, of whom 92,639 are Catholics (1936), with 42 parishes, 137 secular priests and 13 regular priests, one seminary (St. Peter's College at Wexford), 8 male and 25 female religious communities.
St. Aidan, about 598, was the first bishop; his saintly successors Mochin, Mölling, and Killan exercised almost a supremacy over the bishops of the Leinster region. Later, the bishops took their name either from F. or from Wexford, as, for example, Macleoin O' Donegan (1125), or from Hy Kinselling, like Bishop O' Cathan (1135). Bishop Ailbe O' Molloy attended the Lateran Council of 1215. Bishop Patrick Barret transferred his residence to New Ross from 1400 to 1425; at the beginning of the 16th century, Bishop Conyn settled at Fethard Castle, later at Wexford, and after 1809 at Ennis Corty; at present the episcopal residence is at Summerhill near Wexford. From the diocese of F. came Fr. Dixon, who was sent to Australia, of which he became the first Apostolic Prefect, at the beginning of the 19th century. The city of F. suffered many devastations during the 9th and 10th centuries at the hands of the Scandinavians. Remains exist of the abbey of St. Mary in F., rebuilt by the Augustinian Canons after 1160. Bishop O' Lynch did not have the church of St. Peter in 1600.