Roman Catholic Diocese of Banská Bystrica

Archdiocese of Banská Bystrica Dioecesis Neosoliensis
Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier in Banská Bystrica
Location
Country	Slovakia
Territory	Western part of Banská Bystrica, parts of Žilina, Nitra and Trenčín regions
Ecclesiastical province	Bratislava
Metropolitan	Bratislava
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Current leadership
Pope	Benedict XVI
Bishop	Sede vacante

The Diocese of Banská Bystrica (Slovak: Banskobystrická diecéza, Latin: Dioecesis Neosoliensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in central Slovakia. Its seat is in Banská Bystrica. The bishop seat is vacant.

History

The diocese was established on 13 March 1776 as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Esztergom. On 30 December 1977, it was taken from the former and became part of the newly created Slovak ecclesiastical province with metropolitan being the Diocese of Trnava, which was renamed on 31 March 1995 to the Archdiocese of Bratislava-Trnava. It covers western and central parts of the Banská Bystrica Region, eastern parts of the Trenčín Region and southern central parts of the Žilina Region. It covered an area of 5,424 km² with 590,494 people of which 62% were of Catholic faith (2006).^[1]

On 14 February 2008, as a part of the changes in Slovak dioceses, the diocese lost area around Martin to the newly created Diocese of Žilina and territory around Brezno to Diocese of Rožňava. On the other hand, it gained former eastern areas of the Archdiocese of Bratislava-Trnava (from Banská Štiavnica to Šahy and Veľký Krtíš) (see e.g. this map (in Slovak), and some other border changes occurred as well.

References

1. ^ Banská Bystrica (Diocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]

External links

• Official website (Slovak)
• Diocese of Banská Bystrica at catholic-hierarchy.org
• "Neusohl". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10774b.htm.