LITOMÉRICE, LEITMERITZ, DIOCESE of. - City and diocese in Czechoslovakia.
It has an area of 12,000 sq. km., with 1,500,000 inhabitants. It has 955 churches with 449 parishes, served by 268 diocesan priests and 83 regular clergy, 32 male and 49 female religious houses; 2 male and 2 female religious institutes; 27 charitable and welfare institutions and a seminary (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 250). The diocese is suffragan to Prague.
The first Christian building, constructed at L. in 925, was dedicated to S. Venceslao; in 1057 the collegiate church of S. Stefano was built. Numerous monasteries were subsequently added. The diocese was afflicted by the struggles of the Hussites and Protestants. On 3 July 1655 Pope Alessandro VII created the episcopal see of L.; its first bishop was M. Rodolfo von Schleinitz (1555-75), who organized the diocese and built the new Cathedral, still dedicated to the Protomartyr, completed by his successor J. F. J. von Sternberg (1676-1709). Other bishops were: R. von Schulstein (1790-1801), who built schools and educational institutions; V. E. Milde (1823-32), who became archbishop of Vienna; A. L. Frind (1879-81), who wrote the ecclesiastical history of Bohemia in 4 vols. (Die Kirchen-
gesch. Böhmens im allgemeinen und in ihrer besonderen Beziehung auf die jetzige Leitmeritzer Diöcese, Praga 1864-1878); and Bishop E. J. Schobel (1882-1909), who erected further churches.