LAVANT, DIOCESE of. — A diocese in Yugoslavia, with its residence in Maribor in northern Slovenia. Over an area of 7,398 sq. km., it includes 638,786 Catholics and 34,309 adherents of other religions, 259 parishes divided into 28 deaneries, with 256 secular priests and 97 religious (1949).
The episcopal see was founded beside the church of Sankt Andrä in the Valley of the L. (eastern Carinthia) in 1228 by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Eberhard II, at the behest of Pope Honorius III; it originally comprised 7 parishes of the Valley of the L. and of the neighboring territory of Styria. The appointment and confirmation of the Lavantine bishops were reserved, according to the founding bull, to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and this right was exercised by him until 1932.
In 1381, for the first time, alongside the title of Lavantine bishop there appeared that of prince, a title that remained constant from 1446 onward. Normally, the Lavantine Ordinaries were vicars general in the neighboring regions of the Archdiocese of Salzburg.
The diocese acquired real importance following the territorial delimitation carried out by Joseph II; at that time (1769), the districts of Völkermarkt in Carinthia and Celje in Styria were annexed to II. However, this delimitation was rather unnatural and did not correspond to the administrative and pastoral needs of the diocese; consequently, a new revision of the boundaries was undertaken in 1857, whereby the diocese
of L. had to cede the Carinthian territories to that of Gurk, receiving in compensation from the diocese of Seckau the district of Maribor, to which the see was transferred, while retaining the ancient designation of L. With this division, the Diocese of Maribor encompassed nearly the whole Slovene part of Styria. In 1918 L. was given, as an apostolic administration, the parts of the dioceses of Gurk and Szombathely that had passed from Austria and Hungary to Yugoslavia. On 1 May 1924 L. became directly subject to the Holy See.
The most celebrated bishops are: Giorgio Stobaeus von Palmberg (1584–1618), to whom the plan for the Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria is owed; the Servant of God A. M. Slomsek (1846–62), who played a preponderant role in the national awakening of the Slovenes and in the organization of the Austrian school system; Michele Napotnik (1889–1922), an eminent preacher and biblical scholar.