KIELCE, DIOCESE of. — Founded in 1805 by Pius VII through the partition of the dioceses of Kraków, Chełm, and Gnesna. The first bishop was Wojciech de Bożawola Górski. Suppressed in 1818 owing to the agreements between Pius VII and Tsar Alexander I, the episcopal see was transferred to Sandomierz and restored by Leo XIII on 28 December 1882. The first bishop after its restoration was Tomasz Kuliński. It is suffragan to Kraków.
Area: 9,850 sq. km. Catholics: 830,000. Parishes: 238. Churches: 477. Priests serving in the diocese: 364, plus 8 priests from the dioceses of Lwów, Łuck, Pińsk, and Wilno, occupied by the Soviets, and from other dioceses. Religious priests: 23. Religious women: 325. Religious houses for men: 5, with 34 members; for women: 52, with 411 members. Major seminaries: 58; minor seminaries: 44. Institutes of instruction and education for boys: 12, with 983 pupils; for girls: 14, with 1,103 pupils. Institutions of charity, assistance, and care: 33, with 12,000 residents.
Seven churches were destroyed during the German occupation, 145 were damaged, and 1 was permanently closed. Thirteen diocesan priests perished during that occupation, massacred or dying in prison or 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 styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries predominate in II. Notable churches: that of St. Adalbert, erected in the eighteenth century on the site of the old tenth-century church; that of the Holy Trinity, from the seventeenth century; and that on Mount Karczówka, from 1624, founded by the bishop of Kraków, Marcin Szyszkowski. In K. there is a castle of the bishops, built by Bishop Zadzik in 1638–42 in the Renaissance style; the castle contains a gallery of portraits of the bishops of Kraków.