GALLOWAY, Diocese of. - Located in the southwest of Scotland. It comprises the counties of Ayr, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown and the islands of Greater and Little Cumbrae, thus embracing a territory of about 4,000 miles. The episcopal see is at Dumfries. The diocese has 647,000 inhabitants, of whom 27,000 are Catholics, distributed in 33 parishes served by 57 diocesan priests and 9 regulars, 4 male religious communities and 8 female.
It is the oldest ecclesiastical foundation in Scotland, having been founded in 307 by St. Ninian, a Briton born on the shores of the Solway, but educated in Rome and consecrated bishop by Pope Siricius. The original title of the see was "Whitherne," often Latinized as "Candida Casa," because of the white house and cathedral that St. Ninian built and dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. The last Catholic bishop, Andrew Durie, died in 1558 and the see remained vacant until 1878, when Bishop John Mac Lachlan was appointed. The diocese thus re-established is twice as extensive as it was before, but the Catholic population is sparse. G. was a suffragan of York until 1472, when it was transferred under St. Andrews; in 1492 it became subject to Glasgow and so remained until the extinction of the hierarchy under the Reformation. It is now a suffragan of the new archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. The cathedral church is dedicated to St. Andrew.
Bibliography2 works
Filippo Flanagan