LEEDS (Loidis), DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in England, suffragan of Liverpool. It has 3,354,395 inhabitants, of whom 178,000 are Catholics, distributed among 124 parishes served by 284 diocesan and 53 religious priests; 7 male and 62 female religious communities; in 1948 there were 709 conversions.
The diocese was formed by partition from that of Beverley (1850–78) between L. and Middlesbrough on 20 December 1878 and comprises the West Riding (western part) of Yorkshire, together with that part of the city of York which lies south of the River Ouse. It is under the patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, s. Wilfrido and s. Francesco di Sales. It has 4 colleges and secondary schools for boys, and 10 for girls.
The first bishop was R. Cornthwaite, Bishop of Beverley from 1861 to 1878, transferred in 1878, formerly rector of the English College in Rome (1851–57). He died in June 1890; he was succeeded by W. Gordon (1890–1911), J. R. Cowgill (1911–36), H. J. Poskitt (1936–50), who died on 19 February 1950, and J. C. Heenon (February 1951). In 1910 the first National Catholic Congress of England was held at L., from 29 July to 2 August.
Many missions founded in the sixteenth century are found in this diocese: Burghwallis, Hazlewood, Sheffield, Knaresborough; while the “Bar Convent” of York, founded in 1680, the first in England after the so-called Reformation, has, despite persecutions, always continued the beneficial work of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded by Mary Ward, outstanding among English Catholic schools for girls. The region of L. gave many martyrs to the Church, among them the bb. William Lacy (1582), Robert Morton (1588), John Duckett (1644), Thomas Thwing (1680), and the venn. Francis Ingleby, Robert Bickerdike, Edmund Sykes (1589), Edward Thwing (1600). Collateral descendants of the ven. Ralph Grimston (1598) erected the beautiful church of Clifford (1850). The beautiful churches of Sheffield (1853) and L. (St Anne’s, cathedral, 1904) should also be noted.
LE FAVRE (LE FÈVRE), PIERRE, blessed: V. FABER (FAVRE, LEFEVRE), PIERRE.