Diocese of Stanislawow

Diocese of Stanislawow (Stanislaopoliensis)

Diocese of the Greek-Ruthenian Rite, in Galicia, Austria, suffragan of Lemberg.

The establishment of this see was decided on in May, 1850, but the plan was not carried out till the issuing of the Brief "De universo dominico grege" (26 March, 1885) and the imperial decrees of 26 December, 1885. The diocese includes most of south-eastern Galicia and all Bukovina as far as Halicz, which was reserved to the metropolitan mensa of Lemberg. It comprises the districts of Stanislawow, Kolomyja, and Czerniowce. There are 21 deaneries, 433 churches with and 298 without, resident priests, 63 chapels, 579 secular, and 13 regular, priests, 4 Reformed Basilian monasteries with 22 religious, 2 Basilian convents with 11 nuns, and 10 convents of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary with 37 nuns. The Greek-Ruthenian Catholics number 920,000 out of a population of 1,387,930, of whom about 5000 belong to the Armenian, and 230,000 to the Latin, Rite. An esslesiastical seminary was established in 1907, the clergy having been trained previously at Lemberg and Vienna. The episcopal town of Stanislawow was founded by Stanislav Potocki (d. 1683), and was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1868. It is situated on the Bisthritza, 87 miles south-east of Lemberg, and has a population of 30,410, mostly Jews; it has a beautiful parish church containing the tombs of the Potocki, a Polish and a Ruthenian gymnasium, a Polish-Ruthenian normal school, 3 hospitals, a Jesuit residence, and convents of the Sisters of Charity and the Servants of the Immaculate Conception. It is a busy manufacturing centre (paper, lace, tanning, milling, and engineering works).

The bishops of Stanislawow were: (1) Mgr. Julian Pelisz, author of the "Geschichte der Union der ruth. Kirche mit Rom" (Vienna, 1878-81), previously rector of the Greek-Ruthenian Seminary, Vienna, then arch priest of Lemberg cathedral, preconized on 27 March, 1885; consecrated, 1 November, 1885; enthroned, 10 January, 1886; died 1891. (2) Mgr. Julian Kujlowski, b. at krolewski in the Diocese of Przemysl, 1 May, 1826, elected titular Bishop of Ephestum, 26 June, 1890; trasferred to Stanislawow, 22 September, 1891; held a diocesan synod in 1897. (3) Mgr. Count Andrea Alexander de Szeptyce-Szeptychi, member of a distinguished ancient Ruthenian family which joined the Latin Rite in the eighteenth century, b. at Przylbice, in the Diocese of Przemysl, 15 July, 1865, embraced the Ruthenian Rite to enter the Basilian Order, laboured energetically to strengthen the spirit of reform among the monks; was ordained, 29 August, 1892; accepted the episcopal dignity only on the formal order of Leo XIII; elected to the see, 19 June, 1899; promoted to the Archdiocese of Lemberg, 17 December, 1900. (4) Mgr. Gregorius Chomyszyn, b. on 24 March, 1867-8, elected, 19 April 1904, and still governing the diocese.

A. A. MacErlean.