GEZIRA (Gazireh), Diocese of.
**I.** Residential see of a patriarchal vicariate of the Syrians for this region. G., a vast plain in northern Syria, before the 1915-18 war was frequented only by nomadic tribes. After the war, emigrants flowed in, amounting to about 100,000. The Catholic Syrians are, according to the latest data, 5,600, assisted by 10 priests. In 1933, the patriarch sent them a vicar, since the diocese of G., destroyed in the years 1914-18, has not yet been reconstituted.
II. Diocese of the Chaldeans, erected in 1852, which comprises 2 churches and 3,107 faithful, assisted by 11 priests.
BIBL.: Statistique des catholiques de rite chaldéen du patriarcat de Babylone, in *Orient. Chr. Per.*, 4 (1938), p. 274; *Annuario Pontificio* 1949, p. 190.