PREMYSL (Przemyśl) of the LATIN RITE, DIOCESE OF. A Latin-rite diocese in Poland. As early as the 13th century, mention is made of an episcopatus Russiae comprising the vast territory of Ruthenia, or Little Russia. The present Latin diocese of P. was erected by Gregory XI on 13 February 1375 with the bull *Debitum pastoralis officii*. It is a suffragan of the Latin metropolitan see of Lviv (Lwów). Today the episcopal city lies in Poland, but following the new borders established after the Second World War, the diocese has been divided, with a large part now situated in Soviet Russia.
Statistics (1949): area 21,000 km²; Latin Catholics 1,200,000; churches 800; parishes 447; diocesan priests 644; male religious houses 25; female religious houses 154. During the Second World War, the diocese suffered greatly under German and Soviet occupation. Forty-two priests were killed or deported.
Notable bishops: Maciej (Janina), d. 1420; Mikołaj z Błażejowic, d. 1474; Walenty Herburt (1524–72), participant in the Council of Trent, “a man distinguished both in piety and learning”; Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki, author of the treatises *De optimo senatore* and *De haereticis discursus*, d. 1601; Paweł Janina Piasecki, author of *Praxis episcopalis*, published in Venice in 1611, d. 1649; Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski (1699–1784), first bishop of Kamianets-Lithuanian (Livonia), later archbishop of Lviv, who in 1751 divided the diocese into three archdeaconries: Przemyśl, Brzozów, and Jarosław; Franciszek Wierzchlejski (1803–84).
The cathedral chapter of P. was founded in 1390; the seminary dates from 1677–89. Notable churches: the cathedral of Our Lady and St John the Baptist (1460–1744), replacing an earlier 14th-century structure; the Jesuit church (1627); at Sambir, the Bernardine church of the 15th century; at Sanok, the Franciscan monastery and church (1377); at Leżajsk, the Bernardine monastery and church, housing the miraculous image of the Madonna; at Krosno, the parish church (1342).