The Diocese of Spiš ( sk, Spišská diecéza, la, Dioecesis Scepusiensis, hu, Szepesi egyházmegye) is a Roman Catholic

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

in northern

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

. It covers central and eastern parts of the

Žilina Region The Žilina Region ( sk, Žilinský kraj; pl, Kraj żyliński; hu, Zsolnai kerület) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 11 districts (okresy) and 315 municipalities, from which 18 have a town status. The region ...

and western part of the

Prešov Region The Prešov Region, also Priashiv Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj, ; hu, Eperjesi kerület; uk, Пряшівський край) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 o ...

. Its seat is in

Spišská Kapitula Spišská Kapitula (german: Zipser Kapitel, hu, Szepeshely or Szepesi Káptalan) (both meaning the "Spiš Chapter house") is an exceptionally well-preserved ecclesiastical town on the outskirts of Spišské Podhradie, Slovakia, and overlooking ...

; the diocese covers an area of 7,802 km² with 583,633 people of which 76.6% are of Catholic faith (2004). The seat is vacant after the death of bishop

Štefan Sečka Štefan Sečka (6 July 1953 – 28 October 2020) was a Slovak Roman Catholic bishop. Sečka was born in Czechoslovakia and was ordained to the priesthood in 1976. He served as Titular bishop of ''Sita'' and Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Cathol ...

. Auxiliary bishop Ján Kuboš has been elected as a Diocesan Administrator, until new bishop is named by the pope and duly inaugurated.

History

The diocese was established in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephe ...

on 13 March 1776 as a suffragan of the

Archdiocese of Esztergom In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. In 1804, its metropolitan was changed to the Archdiocese of Eger. 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. The last change of metropolitan took place on 31 March 1995 when it was changed to the newly elevated Archdiocese of Košice.

External links

Official website

Catholic Church in Slovakia Roman Catholic dioceses in Slovakia Spiš Religious organizations established in 1776 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 18th century 1776 establishments in Europe {{Slovakia-stub