SUPERIOR, DIOCESI di. - City and diocese in the State of Wisconsin (United States).
The diocese of S. was erected on 3 May 1905 by the dismemberment of the northern part of La Crosse and the north-western part of Green Bay. Mons. Agostino Francesco Schinner, the first bishop, counted in his diocese, in 1905, 38,000 Catholics, 39 diocesan priests and 17 religious, 93 churches and 33 stations. The population is heterogeneous, consisting of Catholics of German, Polish, French, Italian, Slavic and Bohemian languages. Today, suffragan of Milwaukee, it covers an area of 15,715 miles, with a total population of 259,428 inhabitants, of whom 68,671 are Catholics. There are moreover 118 diocesan priests (40 religious: Precious Blood, Franciscans, Benedictines, Servites of Mary), 77 parishes, 31 chapels, 71 missions, 18 female congregations (540 nuns), 55 seminarians, an orphanage and 10 hospitals.