Galway and Kilmacduagh, Diocese of

GALWAY AND KILMACDUAGH, Diocese of. - City in Ireland. The bishop is titular of G. and K. and perpetual administrator of the diocese of Kilfenora. G. and K. have an area of 2,610 sq km with 59,742 inhabitants, of whom 59,373 are Catholics, with 30 parishes; of these 12 are in the diocese of G., all in the same county, except Shrule, which is in the county of Mayo; 10 are in the diocese of K., all in the county of G., and 8 in the diocese of Kilfenora, all in the county of Clare in the province of Cashel.

The parishes are served by 74 diocesan priests and 73 regulars; there are a seminary, 11 male religious houses and 17 female (1949).

K. had as its first bishop St. Colman, who founded a monastery there and died in 632; the diocese became a suffragan of Tuam. From 1653 to 1720 K. was governed only by vicars; then it resumed the regular episcopal succession until 1750, the year in which it was united to the small diocese of Kilfenora; the bishop of K. was apostolic administrator of Kilfenora; subsequently the office alternated.

In the second half of the 6th century St. Brendan founded the monastery of Annaghdown, whose abbot later became bishop. In its territory there was a fishing village called G., plundered from the 9th century by the Danes and in the 13th by the king of Munster; but thanks to its position and its trade it flourished again rapidly. When in 1324 the diocese of Annaghdown was united to that of Tuam, the inhabitants of G. gave themselves no rest until in 1484 they obtained from the archbishop of Tuam exemption from his jurisdiction. Pope Innocent VIII granted that their church of St. Nicholas should become a collegiate church, with a rector assisted by 8 vicars. All having been deposed in 1551 and replaced with Protestants, the Catholics then prevailed, until, on 26 April 1831, Pope Gregory XVI created the diocese of G. In 1866 the bishop of G. was appointed by Pope Pius IX apostolic administrator of K. and Kilfenora during beneplacito Sanctae Sedis. In 1883 Pope Leo XIII united the three dioceses permanently; the bishop is at one and the same time bishop of G. and of K. and apostolic administrator of Kilfenora.

Enrico Josi