WŁOCŁAWEK (WOLCLAWEK, CUJAVIA-KALISZ). – A city and diocese in Poland, with its seat at Włocławek.
It has an area of 11,500 km² and a population of 1,109,000, of whom 1,000,000 are Catholics, distributed across 249 parishes served by 350 diocesan priests and 75 religious; it has two seminaries, 22 male religious communities, and 62 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1933, p. 455).
The first episcopal see was at Kruszwica, whose first eight bishops are uncertain. The first certain one is Świdger, who died in 1133. Eugene III, by a bull of 1148, established the boundaries of the diocese of Włocławek, which bore the name of Cujavia and Kalisz; then from 1159 the episcopal see was transferred to Włocławek. Notable bishops were: Gerward (1300–23); Maciej z Gołańczy (d. 1368), who began the construction of the cathedral; Krzesław z Kurozwęk (1494–1503); Wincenty Przerębski (1503–13); Stanisław Karnkowski, transferred to Gniezno in 1581; Hieronim Rozdrażewski (1535–1600), buried in Rome in the church of the Gesù; Stanisław Sarnowski (d. 1680); Antoni Sebastian Dembowski (1682–1763); Andrzej Wołłowicz (d. at Kalisz in 1822), the first bishop of Cujavia and Kalisz. From 1576 the bishops of Włocławek substituted for the primates of Poland during sede vacante; in the Senate they held the second place; from the 14th century auxiliary bishops were also appointed. The Chapter is known from the 11th century. The original cathedral was destroyed by the Crociferi in 1329; the present one, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, in the Gothic style, dates from 1340–1411 but was rebuilt between 1690 and 1720; it is a minor basilica. St John the Baptist dates from 1538; the church of All Saints from 1640; St Vitalis from 1330. Włocławek was the property of the bishops until 1796; their residence was in the castle, rebuilt in the 14th century and then in the 18th. The seminary, founded in 1569, was the first in Poland. At Kruszwica is the church of SS Peter and Paul from the 12th century, first collegiate and then cathedral; it preserves the relics of St Vitalis, brought from Corvey in Saxony. At Kalisz, noteworthy is the church of St Nicholas from 1220; the collegiate church of the Blessed Virgin dates from 1459 and was rebuilt in 1790.