Diocese of Veglia

(VEGIENSIS ET ARBENSIS).

In Austria, suffragan of Görz-Gradisca. Parallel to the Dinaric Alps are a number of rocky islands, separated from the mainland by a deep, though narrow, strait. The largest of them is Veglia, which in the year 1000 had a bishop, Vitalis, who was preset at a synod in Spoleto. Eugene III made it a suffragan of Zara, but since 1828 it has been under Görz. Bartholomaus Bozarich was present at the assembly of bishops in 1849 and his successor was a member of the Vatican Council. Still more ancient is the See of Ossero (Lusin, Absor, Auxerensis), to whose bishop Pope John VIII wrote in 870. The fifty-fifth bishop, Raccamarich, was transferred to Cattaro in 1818, and Ossero and Veglia were united. The See of Arbe (Scardona) is even more ancient. Its first known bishop attended a council at Salona in 530. The fifty-eight bishop, Galzigna (d. in 1823), was also the last, as his diocese was merged in that of Veglia. Although Veglia is a triple see, it contains only 809,000 Catholics, 95 secular priests, 64 regulars, and 68 nuns.

FARLATI, Illyrici sacri, V (Venice, 1775); Veglia, 294-316, 639-47; Ossero, 182-223; Arbe, 223-294; THEINER, Monumenta Slavorum meridionalium, hist. illustr. (Rome, 1863), 46, 79 sq., 107 sq., 112, 122, 163, 323, 422 sq., 432 sq., 519 sq., 575, 581, 613 sq.; Mon. Hung. Rom., I (1859): Veglia, 425, 110, 112, 195, 220 sq., 323, 539 sq., Absor, 573, Arbe, 247, 281 sq.

COLESTIN WOLFSGRUBER