KIELCE, Diocese of. - Founded in 1805 by Pius VII, by the dismemberment of those of Kraków, Chełm and Gniezno. The first bishop was Wojciech de Bożawola Górski. Suppressed in 1818 by the agreements between Pius VII and Tsar Alexander I, the episcopal see was transferred to Sandomierz and re-established by Leo XIII on 28 Dec. 1882. The first bishop after the re-establishment was Tomasz Kuliński. It is a suffragan of Kraków.

Area: 9850 sq km. Catholics: 830,000. Parishes: 238. Churches: 477. Priests assigned to the diocese: 364, plus 8 priests from the dioceses of Lwów, Łuck, Pińsk, Wilno occupied by the Soviets and other dioceses. Regular priests: 23. Religious women: 325. Male religious houses: 5, with 34 members; female: 52, with 411 members. Major seminaries: 58; minor: 44. Male educational and training institutes: 12, with 983 pupils; female: 14, with 1103 pupils. Charitable, welfare and care institutes: 33, with 12,000 inmates.

It had 7 churches destroyed under the German occupation, 145 damaged, 1 closed forever. The diocesan priests who perished during that occupation were 13, slaughtered or dead in prison or in concentration camps.

Pilgrimage centers: Jedrzejów, Piekoszów, Przeginia, Piotrkowice. The Cathedral was founded as a collegiate church in 1171 by the bishop of Kraków Gedeon; at present, the style of the 17th and 18th centuries prevails in it. Notable churches: St. Adalbert's, erected in the 18th century on the site of the old one of the 10th century; of the Most Holy Trinity, of the 17th century; on Mount Karczówka, of 1624, founded by the bishop of Kraków Marcin Szyszkowski. At K. there is a Castle of the bishops built by bishop Zadzik in 1638-42, in Renaissance style; in the Castle there is a gallery of portraits of the bishops of Kraków.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: J. Długosz, Opera omnia. I. Kraków 1863, p. 394; III, ibid. 1867, p. 76; S. Orgelbranda, Encyklopedia Powszechna. XVII, pp. 707-12; Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego. IV, Warsaw 1884, pp. 21-32; F. P. Navarra, Monografia Kościoła Dzieszyi Kieleckiej. II, ibid. 1911, pp. 87-89; M. Walicki-J. Staryński, Dzieje Sztuki Polskiej, ibid. 1936, p. 158; M. Pirozyński, Statystyka Kościoła katolickiego w Polsce, in Homo Dei, 1946, II, pp. 80-82; id., Seminaria Duchowne w Polsce, ibid., 1948, I, p. 84; id., Ze statystyki Kościoła w Polsce, ibid., 1948, IV, pp. 464-67; 1948, V, pp. 578-79.

Adam Macieliński

@incollection{ec7_kielce_diocesi_di, author = {Macielinski, Adam}, title = {Kielce, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {690}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/kielce-diocesi-di} }

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Kielce, Diocese of

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