GIBAIL, diocese of. — Ancient Byblos in Phoenicia, the Giblet of the Crusaders, today a village of 1,500 inhabitants, 30 km north of Beirut on the Mediterranean. G. is, together with Botri, the patriarchal diocese of the Maronite patriarch, who resides at Békorki.
Faithful: 22,774; priests: 93; houses of men’s religious institutes: 6; parishes: 70; Catholic Action works: 5; confraternities: 145; schools and institutes: 30.
The G. diocese of the Melkites was united with that of Beirut by the bull of 16 August 1881 under Leo XIII.
BIBL.: P. Dib, Maronite (Eglis), in DThC, X, col. 122; Statistica della gerarchia e dei fedeli di rito or., Vatican City 1932, pp. 59–60, 306; Annuario pontificio, 1949, p. 191. Guglielmo de Vries