OSSORY, DIOCESI di. — Diocese of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, suffragan to the diocese of Dublin. It has an area of 2,400 sq. km and a population of 76,038, of whom 73,234 are Catholics; it has 41 parishes served by 130 diocesan priests and 47 religious priests; 6 male and 26 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 304).
In 1118, at the Synod of Rathbreasail, the boundaries of the diocese were established. After the 12th century the see of the diocese was Kilkenny; there, in 1317, Riccardo di Ledrede, a Franciscan, held a synod for the diocesan clergy. During the Reformation, the people of O. remained faithful to Catholicism and drove out John Bale, whom Edward VI of England nevertheless attempted to impose upon them as bishop. In the years 1602–18 and 1650–69 O. was without a bishop, but between 1618 and 1650 it was governed by David Rothe, one of the most renowned bishops in the history of the diocese. In 1621 he was the only bishop in Ireland and played a very significant part in the formation of the Catholic Confederation at Kilkenny in 1642. Other bishops subsequently worthy of mention were the Dominicans Thomas de Burgo (1759–76) and J. Th. Troy (1776–86). In 1838 a diocesan college was
opened at O.
Among its religious monuments, mention should be made of St. Mary’s Cathedral, begun in 1843 and completed in 1857. The patron of the diocese is s. Kieran, who lived around 500 and whose feast is celebrated on 5 March; until 1773 this observance was considered in the diocese a holy day of obligation.