PEORIA, DIOCESE OF. - Diocese and city in the state of Illinois, in the United States of America. This diocese was erected in 1875 by separation from the Archdiocese of Chicago and today (1951) covers a territory of 16,933 square miles with a total population of 1,108,051 inhabitants (1940 census), of whom 160,266 are Catholic.
The Diocese of Peoria, suffragan of Chicago, comprises 1 abbey (St. Bede, Peru), 344 priests of whom 105 are religious from 8 different congregations, 158 parishes, 34 chapels, 58 missions, 13 general hospitals and 2 specialized hospitals or sanatoria. There are also 30 female congregations and 1,270 religious sisters.
Catholicism in this part of the United States dates back to the time of the Jesuit Father Marquette, who stopped at the Indian village of Peoria on May 25, 1673, during a journey on the Illinois River. Invited by the natives, he promised to return the following year. The Recollects celebrated Holy Mass and preached the Gospel at Fort Creve-Coeur in 1680. The names of Fathers Gabriel Ribourdi, Zenobius Membre, and Louis Hennepin are well known there. Among the first immigrants were many Irish who came to work on the Illinois-Michigan Canal and received land in exchange for their wages. They were followed by Poles, Slovenes, Slovaks, Croats, Lithuanians, and Italians who came in large numbers to work in the mines. All were organized into parishes with priests of their own nationality. Bishop John Lancaster Spalding, a native of Kentucky, was consecrated first bishop of Peoria on May 1, 1877; he played a decisive role in the founding of The Catholic University of America.