LEEDS (Loids), Diocese of. – A city and diocese in England, suffragan of Liverpool. It has 3,354,395 inhabitants, of whom 178,000 are Catholics, distributed in 124 parishes, served by 284 diocesan priests and 53 regular clergy; 7 male and 62 female religious communities; in 1948 there were 709 conversions.
The diocese was formed by the division of the diocese of Beverley (1850–78) between Leeds and Middlesbrough on 20 December 1878 and comprises the West Riding (western part) of Yorkshire, together with that part of the city of York situated south of the River Ouse. It is placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, St Wilfrid and St Francis de Sales. It has 4 boys’ colleges and secondary schools, 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 in Leeds, from 29 July to 2 August.
In this diocese are many missions that began in the 16th century: Burghwallis, Hazlewood, Sheffield, Knaresborough, while the “Bar Convent” of York, founded in 1680, the first in England after the so-called Reformation, despite persecutions, has continued the charitable work of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded by Mary Ward, prominent among the schools for young English Catholic ladies. The region of Leeds gave many martyrs to the Church, among whom the Blesseds William Lacy (1582), Robert Morton (1588), John Duckett (1644), Thomas Thwing (1680) and the Venerables Francis Ingleby, Robert Bickerdike, Edmund Sykes (1589), Edward Thwing (1600). Collateral descendants of the Venerable Ralph Grimston (1598) erected the fine church of Clifford (1850). Notable also are the fine churches of Sheffield (1853) and Leeds (St Anne, cathedral, 1904).
LE FAVRE (Le Fevre), Pierre, Blessed: V. FABER (FAVRE, LEFEVRE), Pierre.