HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE, DIOCESE OF. — In the ecclesiastical province of Liverpool (England). The diocese has an area of 7,700 sq km and a population of 2,242,701 inhabitants, of whom 247,234 are Catholics, distributed among 148 parishes served by 329 diocesan and 38 religious priests, 8 male religious orders and congregations, and 18 women’s communities; in 1948 there were 588 conversions. The episcopal residence is at N. on Tyne.
In the year 674 St. Wilfrido founded an abbey at H. in Northumbria. In 678 St. Teodoro of Canterbury divided the diocese of York and formed that of Bernicia, with two episcopal sees, at Lindisfarne and H., and appointed St. Eata «bishop of the Bernicians». After 3 years Bernicia was divided; St. Eata remained bishop of Lindisfarne, while Trumbert became bishop of H., whom St. Cutberto succeeded in 684. In the same year St. Cutberto went to Lindisfarne, while St. Eata moved to H., where he died in 686. H. extended from the River Aln to the Tees. Among the successors of St. Eata were St. Giovanni of Beverley (687-705), St. Wilfrido (705-709), after resigning the see of York, St. Acca, to whom St. Beda dedicated several of his writings, and Tidfert, who died ca. 820 during the Danish incursions. Tidfert had no successor, and H. had to be incorporated into the diocese of Lindisfarne, which was transferred ca. 883 to Chester-le-Street, and then in 995 to Durham.
In 1850, when Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy in England, he re-established the diocese of H.; on 23 May 1861 N. was also joined to its name, in which city stands the beautiful Gothic-style Cathedral, the work of Pugin (1844), dedicated to Mary Most Holy. It comprises the former dioceses of Durham and Carlisle and the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham. Its first bishop was Guglielmo Hogarth, formerly apostolic vicar of the region’s Northern District, who died in 1866. Among his successors are Enrico O' Callaghan (1888-89), formerly rector of the English College in Rome (1867-88), and Tommaso Wilkinson (1889-1909).
The saints Beda, Cuthberto, Oswaldo, Wilfrido, Eata, and many others belonged to this diocese; in addition, the martyrs Blessed Tomasso Percy (1572), Blessed Giovanni Boste (1594), and others. Near Durham is the celebrated Ushav Seminary; the episcopal ring of St. Cutberto is preserved there, which the bishop wears during sacred ordinations.
The diocese is under the patronage of Our Lady Immaculate and St. Cutberto.