LAVANT, Diocese of. - Diocese in Yugoslavia with its residence in Maribor in northern Slovenia. With an area of 7,398 sq km, it comprises 638,786 Catholics and 34,309 of other religions, 259 parishes divided into 28 deaneries with 256 secular priests and 97 religious (1949).
The episcopal see was founded at the church of Sankt Andrä in the Lavant Valley (eastern Carinthia) in 1228 by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Eberhard II, on the commission of Pope Honorius III, and originally comprised 7 parishes of the Lavant Valley and of the neighboring territory of Styria. The appointment and confirmation of the Lavant bishops are reserved, according to the bull of foundation, to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and this right was exercised by him until 1932.
In the year 1381, for the first time, alongside the title of Bishop of Lavant there appeared that of Prince, a title which remained constantly from 1446 onward. Normally the Ordinaries of Lavant were vicars general in the neighboring regions of the Archdiocese of Salzburg.
The diocese assumed real importance following the territorial delimitation made by Joseph II; at that time (1769) the districts of Völkermarkt in Carinthia and of Celje in Styria were annexed to it. However, this delimitation was rather unnatural and did not correspond to the administrative and pastoral needs of the diocese, so that in 1857 a new revision of the boundaries was made, whereby the diocese of L. had to cede the territories of Carinthia to that of Gurk, receiving in compensation, from the Diocese of Seckau, the district of Maribor, where the see was transferred, while nevertheless preserving the ancient name of L. With this division the Diocese of Maribor embraced almost the entire Slovene part of Styria. In 1918 L. had under apostolic administration the parts of the Dioceses of Gurk and of 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: Georg Stobaeus von Palmberg (1584-1618), to whom the design of the Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria is owed; the servant of God A. M. Slomsek (1846-62), who played a preponderant part in the national awakening of the Slovenes and in the organization of the Austrian school system; Michael Napotnik (1889-1922), a distinguished preacher and biblical scholar.
Bibliography
Francesco Dolinar