Roman Catholic Diocese of Smolensk


The Diocese of Smolensk was a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church. Founded in 1636 and dissolved in 1818, it was initially located within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and later in Czarist Russia.

History

The Latin Church bishopric was established in 1611 by King Sigismund III Vasa when Smolensk was occupied by the Polish army after the long siege of Smolensk. Its foundation was confirmed by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1618, however the first bishop Piotr Parczewski was appointed only in 1636. The see rather often served as a stepping stone to be transferred to other bishoprics in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Initially, the territory of the diocese formed part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, however, after the Truce of Andrusovo of 1667 it passed to Russia. Since then, the bishops of Smolensk resided in Warsaw. In the XVIII century the Diocese had only three parishes, all in the Polish territory, and 10,000 faithfuls.
On 15 April 1783, it lost all of its territory due to the establishment of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mohilev.
In 1818, it was formally suppressed and its territory canonically merged into the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mohilev, which would be merged in 1991 with the Diocese of Minsk into the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev at the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, so as to cover independent Belarus.
The Catholics in Smolensk are now part of the parish of the Immaculate Conception Church in the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow.

Episcopal ordinaries

;Suffragan Bishops of Smolensk