WATERFORD AND LISMORE, Diocese of. - Located in the south-east of Ireland in the civil province of Munster and in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel.

The diocese has 39 parishes, served by 125 diocesan priests and 82 regulars; it has a population of 107,100 inhabitants, of whom 104,940 are Catholics, over an area of 1450 sq km; there are 19 male religious communities and 33 female, and a seminary (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 452).

The diocese of L. was founded in 659, and to it or to the famous school founded at L. by St. Carthage around 650 belonged numerous saints, among them St. Cataldus, St. Colman, St. Cronan and St. Maedoc. Giollachrist or Conarchi, who died in 1186 as bishop of L., presided during his lifetime over many provincial and national councils of the clergy. Felix, bishop of L., was present at the Lateran Council of 1179. The diocese of W. was not created before 1096, when Malchus was consecrated its first bishop by the archbishop of Canterbury; it was a very small diocese and was occupied by the Danes, who at that time lived in and around the city of W. In 1363 the two dioceses were united. During the years 1579-1629, 1652-71 and 1693-96 they were administered by apostolic vicars. Among the most illustrious bishops are remembered the Augustinian Patrick Comerford (1629-52), John Brenan (1671-1677) and William Egan (1774-96).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: J. Smith, Ancient and Present State of W., Dublin 1746; W. Maziere Brady, The Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland and Ireland, II, Rome 1876, pp. 64-78; anon., Parochial Hist. of W. and L. during the 18th and 19th centuries, Waterford 1912; P. Power, A Bishop of the Penal Times, Cork 1932; J. Linchabus, De praesulibus Hiberniae (ed. O. Doherty), II, Dublin 1944, pp. 98-125.

Cataldo Giblin

@incollection{ec12_waterford_e_lismore_diocesi_di, author = {Giblin, Cataldo}, title = {Waterford e Lismore, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1657}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/waterford-e-lismore-diocesi-di} }

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Waterford and Lismore, Diocese of

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