Gibail, Diocese of. – The ancient Byblos in Phoenicia, 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 in Bekorki.
Faithful: 22,774; priests: 93; male religious houses: 6; parishes: 70; Catholic Action works: 5; confirmations: 145; schools and institutes: 30.
The Melkite diocese of G. was united with that of Beirut by the bull of 16 Aug. 1881 under Leo XIII.
BIBL.: P. Dib, Maronite (Eglise), in DTHC. X, col. 122; Statistica della gerarchia e dei fedeli di rito or., Città del Vaticano 1932, pp. 59-60, 306; Annuario pontificio, 1949, p. 191. Guglielmo de Vries