DIOCESE OF SIEDLCE. - City and diocese in Poland. It has an area of 14,300 sq km with a population of 784,300 inhabitants, of whom 740,188 are Catholics, distributed in 264 parishes, served by 331 diocesan priests and 26 regulars; it has two seminaries, 7 male religious communities and 44 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 379).
Founded in 1818 by a bull of Pius VII, Ex imposita nobis, arising from the dismemberment of parts of the dioceses of Chełm, Kraków, Poznań, Płock and Łuck, which from 1805 to 1818 formed a part of the diocese of Lublin (v.). Episcopal see at Janów Podlaski and Biskupi. First bishop: Feliks Łukasz na Lewinie Lewiński (1750-1825). By decree of the Russian government of 1867 the diocese of Podlachia was suppressed, remaining under the administration of the bishops of Lublin. It was re-established in 1925 with the episcopal see at S. Suffragan of Warsaw. First bishop Henryk Przeździecki.
Podlachia and the Land of Chełm were the object, especially in 1865-75, of cruel religious persecutions by Russia, which provoked a profound echo throughout the world (v. LUBLINO). At S. the church of St. Stanislaus is from 1740, the Municipal Palace from the 18th century, the Palace known as "Aleksandria" from the 18th century. At Janów Podlaski or Biskupi the collegiate church of the Most Holy Trinity is from the 15th century. The church of the Dominicans is from the 18th century, the Seminary from 1685. At Kodeń the parish church is from the 15th century; there the miraculous image of the Madonna is venerated.
Bibliography2 works
Adamo Macieliński