SALFORD, Diocese of. - In England. It comprises the divisions (Hundreds) of Salford and Blackburn in the county of Lancashire. It has a population of 2,711,215 inhabitants, of whom about 375,000 are Catholics distributed in 162 parishes, served by 422 diocesan priests and 106 regulars; it has a seminary, 19 male religious communities and 46 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 347).
Besides the large Jesuit College at Stonyhurst, there are 175 public schools, 3 secondary schools for boys and 15 for girls, 2 hospitals, etc.
Before the Reformation this region was part of the diocese of Lichfield and then of that of Chester from 1553 to 1559. From 1668 to 1840 it was a "Northern district," while from 1840-50 it was part of Lancashire, which had resisted the change of religion; indeed those who in Elizabeth's time had yielded, in order to avoid fines and other penalties, afterward recanted, especially through the work of Dr. Allen, later cardinal. This diocese gave the following martyrs to the Church: the Bl. T. Cottam (1582), J. Nutter (1584), W. Marsden (1586), R. Hurst (1628), A. Barlow (1641), J. Southworth (1654), and the Ven. W. Thomson (1586), E. Osbaldeston (1594), J. Thules (1616), J. Woodcock and T. Whitaker (1646). Also to be noted is J. Paslew, the last abbot of Whalley, hanged in 1537, the priest W. Hans, who died from his sufferings (1644), and the martyr of Chaigley near Stonyhurst, whose identity is uncertain, traditionally Philip Holden, slain at the altar by the Cromwellians in 1648.
The confessor Lawrence Vaux, author of the excellent Cathechisme (1583), died in prison in 1585. Other notable confessors were J. Towneley, who suffered for many years in prisons; E. Rishton, translator and continuer of Nicholas Sanders's De Schismate Anglicano, d. 1585; the Jesuit Laurence Anderton, apologist, and Anselm Beech (dom Anselm de Mancestria), who founded the English Benedictine monastery at Douai. Many families remained faithful, such as the de Trafford, Towneley, Holden, Southworth, and maintained hidden chapels during the persecutions, such as Stonyhurst, Leagram, Samlesbury, Trafford and others. In 1687 the first vicar apostolic, J. Leyburn, confirmed many of the faithful. In 1773 churches were opened at Blackburn and in 1774 at Manchester. In some places there were anti-Catholic riots in 1850 and 1867, but generally the church lived in peace after emancipation. The diocese was restored on 29 Sept. 1850; since then the bishops have been: Msgr. W. Turner (1851-72), H. Vaughan, later cardinal (1872-92), J. Bilsborrow (1892-1903), L. Ch. Casartelli (1903-25); Th. Henshaw (1925-38) and from 1939 H. V. Marshall.
The diocese is a suffragan of Liverpool. In 1873 it was consecrated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Its patrons are Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Joseph and St. Augustine, apostle of England. Noteworthy is the annual procession on the Friday after Pentecost at Manchester, a magnificent manifestation of living faith.
Besides the beautiful ruins of Whalley Abbey, among the ancient churches those of Ribchester, Whalley (with Anglo-Saxon crosses in the churchyards) and Manchester (now a Protestant cathedral) are notable; among the Catholic churches of modern times, Pleasington, Stonyhurst and the cathedral of St.
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Enrico E. G. Rope