TARNOVIA, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in Poland. It has an area of 9,025 sq. km. with a population of 982,000, of whom 979,800 are Catholics distributed in 342 parishes, served by 621 diocesan priests and 70 regular clergy; it has 15 male religious communities and 142 female (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 417).
The diocese was created by Pope Pius VI on 28 Nov. 1785 by separation from Cracow, and its first bishop was Abbot F. A. Janowski, a Benedictine, who died in 1801. Due to the partition of Poland, the diocese was then suppressed by Pius VII by a bull of 13 June 1805, but it was restored by the same Pontiff with the bull *De salute animarum* of 29 Sept. 1821, and Bishop T. G. Ziegler, a Benedictine monk of Wiblingen, was appointed. It was confirmed by Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Vixdum Poloniae unitas* of 28 Oct. 1925 (AAS, 17 [1926], pp. 521-22). The diocese is a suffragan of Cracow. The cathedral, dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, dates from the 14th century and was collegiate from 1400 to 1785; it was renovated between 1889-1900 and contains precious works of art. Notable also are the churches of St. Martin and of the Most Holy Trinity.