ROSS, DIOCESE of. — Diocese in County Cork in southern Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel and in the civil province of Munster. The diocese has 11 parishes, 29 secular priests, and 8 religious. There are also 5 communities of nuns and sisters, comprising 104 members. The total population of the diocese in 1947 was 25,011 inhabitants, of whom 23,598 were Catholics.
The first bishop was St Fachtna, whose feast is celebrated on 14 August; he died around 600. Until 1650 the diocese had its own bishop, but from then until 1850
ROSSANO, DIOCESE of — St Mark in the act of writing the beginning of his Gospel while the Most Holy Mary is speaking to him. Miniature from the purple Gospel Book of R., fol. 241 (6th century) — Rossano, Chapter Archives.
R. was governed by vicars or apostolic administrators. From 1748 to 1850 R. was united with the diocese of Cloyne.
Among the diocese’s most notable bishops were Thaddeus Mc Carthy (1482–88), who died at Ivrea in 1492 and was beatified in 1895; Thomas O’Herlihy (1562–80), of great holiness, who suffered greatly for the Catholic faith and took part in the Council of Trent; Owen Mc Egan, who died for the faith in 1602; and Boetius Mc Egan, who was hanged at Carrigadrohid in 1650. With the consecration of William Keane as bishop of R. in 1851, the diocese regained its autonomy. Bishop Michael O’Hea took part in the First Vatican Council in 1869. The cathedral church is at Skibbereen.