FERNS, DIOCESE of. - In Ireland. Within its area of 3,000 sq. km., it comprises almost the whole of the county of Wexford and part of that of Wielow. It is suffragan to Dublin. It has a population of 98,421 inhabitants, of whom 92,639 are Catholics (1936), with 42 parishes, 137 secular priests and 13 regulars, one seminary (St. Peter's College at Wexford), 8 male and 25 female religious communities.
St. Aidano, about 598, was the first bishop; his holy successors Mochna, Molling, and Killan exercised almost a supremacy over the bishops of the region of Leinster. Later the bishops assumed the designation either of F. or of Wexford, as, for example, Macleoin O' Donegan (1125), or of Hy Kinsellag, as Bishop O' Cathan (1135). Bishop Ailbe O' Molloy took part in the Lateran Council of 1215. Bishop Patrizio Barret transferred the residence to New-Ross from 1400 to 1415; while at the beginning of the 16th century Bishop Comyn established himself at Fethard Castle; later at Wexford and, after 1809, at Ennis Corty; at present the episcopal residence is at Summarihill near Wexford. Father Dixon, who was exiled to Australia, of which he became the first apostolic prefect, at the beginning of the 19th century, was from the diocese of F. The city of F. suffered many devastations during the 9th and 10th centuries at the hands of the Scandinavians. Remains survive of the abbey of St. Maria in F., founded by the Canons Regular after 1160. Bishop O'Lynam founded the church of St. Pietro in 1060.