TARNOVIA, DIOCESE of. - City and diocese in Poland. It has an area of 9,025 sq. km., with a population of 982,000 inhabitants, of whom 979,800 are Catholics, distributed among 342 parishes, served by 621 diocesan and 70 regular clergy; it has 15 male and 142 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 417).
The diocese was created by Pope Pius VI on 28 Nov. 1785 through the dismemberment of Cracovia, and its first bishop was Msgr. F. A. Janowski, a Benedictine abbot, who died in 1801; following the partition of Poland, the diocese was subsequently suppressed by Pius VII by the bull of 13 June 1805, but was restored by the same Pontiff with the bull De salute animarum of 29 Sept. 1821, and Msgr. T. G. Ziegler, a Benedictine monk at Wiblingen, was elected bishop. It was confirmed by Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution Vixdum Poloniae unitae, of 28 Oct. 1925 (AAS, 17 [1926], pp. 521-22). The diocese is suffragan to Cracovia. The Cathedral, dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, dates from the fourteenth century and was a collegiate church from 1400 to 1785; it was renovated between 1889 and 1900 and contains valuable works of art. Also noteworthy are the churches of S. Martino and of the Most Holy Trinity.