STANISLAO POLI, DIOCESE OF THE RUTENI (Ukrainian: STANISLAVIV). — It was formerly in Poland (Galicia), now in Ukraine (USSR), suffragan of Leopoli.
S. was erected after lengthy negotiations (begun in 1830) on 25 March 1885, by dismembering the archdiocese of Leopoli. It comprised the south-eastern part of Galicia (except the city of Halyč, the metropolitan see of Leopoli), and the whole of Bukovina. After the First World War, when Bukovina was annexed to Romania, the Holy See established an apostolic administration for this part of the diocese; in 1930, in accordance with the Romanian Concordat, it was incorporated into the then newly erected diocese of Maramures, while retaining a special general vicariate for the Ukrainian-speaking population. The first diocesan synod was held in 1897, and the Seminary was opened in 1907.
The first bishop of S. was the distinguished theologian and historian Giuliano Peleš (v.). The second was Giuliano Kujilovskyj (1891–99), subsequently elected metropolitan of Leopoli. The third bishop was Andrea Šeptyckyj (1899–1900), Leopoli (v.); the fourth was Gregorio Chomyšyn (1904–47), deported by the Bolsheviks to Russia (in 1945), where he died as a confessor of the faith. In 1946 the diocese of S. too was officially declared schismatic, and an apostate priest (later bishop, Antonio Pelveckyj) occupied the episcopal see. Persecution began thereafter; the Catholic diocese was destroyed in its organizational structure.
In 1938 the diocese had: 886 churches, of which 455 were parishes; 551 priests; 90 seminarians; 1,044,992 Eastern Catholics.