Diocese of Menevia

Diocese of Menevia Dioecesis Menevensis Esgobaeth Mynyw
St Joseph's Cathedral, Swansea
Location
Country	Wales
Territory	Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Brecknock and Radnor
Ecclesiastical province	Cardiff
Coordinates	52°00′29″N 4°30′18″W / 52.008°N 4.505°W
Statistics
Area	9,310 km2 (3,590 sq mi)
Population Total Catholics	(as of 2013) 829,500 26,200 (3.2%)
Parishes	55
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	6th century 12 May 1898 (re-establishment)
Dissolved	2024
Cathedral	Swansea Cathedral
Secular priests	30
Leadership
Pope	Leo XIV
Bishop	Mark O'Toole
Metropolitan Archbishop	Mark O'Toole
Vicar General	Joseph Cefai
Bishops emeritus	Thomas Matthew Burns
Map
Diocese of Menevia within the Province of Cardiff
Website
menevia.org

The Diocese of Menevia (Latin: Dioecesis Menevensis) was a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Wales. It was one of two suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cardiff and was subject to the Archdiocese of Cardiff, until it merged with the archdiocese in 2024, to form the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia.

History

The history of the diocese of St Davids is traditionally traced to that saint (Dewi) in the latter half of the 6th century. Records of the history of the diocese before Norman times are very fragmentary, however, consisting of a few chance references in old chronicles, such as Annales Cambriae and Brut y Tywysogion (Rolls Series).

On 12 May 1898, the Apostolic Vicariate of Wales was elevated to diocesan status and had its seat at the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Wrexham until 1987 when the Diocese of Wrexham was created. The Diocese of Menevia covered between 1987 and 2024 the area roughly that of the ancient Diocese of St Davids. ("Menevia" was the Roman name for St Davids.) The Catholic diocese was led by Mark O'Toole, Archbishop of Cardiff, when Cardiff and Menevia merged in a single Archdiocese in 2024.

The sixth century bishop St Ismael is honoured on 16 June.

Timeline

• 6th Century: Saint David becomes bishop
• 21 January 1560: diocese disestablished (English Reformation), becomes the protestant Diocese of St Davids.
• 29 September 1850: Universalis Ecclesiae: The Roman Catholic Church in Wales is split between the Diocese of Shrewsbury in the north and the Diocese of Newport and Menevia in the south.
• 4 September 1860: Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, the cathedral priory of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia is consecrated.
• 4 July 1895: The Diocese of Newport and Menevia splits. Glamorgan, Monmouth and Herefordshire become the Diocese of Newport. The rest of Wales, including North Wales from the Diocese of Shrewsbury, becomes the Apostolic Vicariate of Wales.
• 12 May 1898: The Apostolic Vicariate of Wales become the Diocese of Menevia with Wrexham Cathedral as its pro-cathedral.
• 7 February 1916: The Diocese of Newport becomes the Archdiocese of Cardiff and it is decided that St David's church in Cardiff would become its cathedral.
• 12 March 1920: St David's Cathedral, Cardiff is officially made the metropolitan cathedral of the Archdiocese of Cardiff.
• 12 February 1987: The Diocese of Menevia is split. The north becomes the Diocese of Wrexham with its cathedral remaining in Wrexham. The south remains the Diocese of Menevia and sets up Swansea Cathedral.
• 12 September 2024: Pope Francis creates the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia by merging the Archdiocese of Cardiff and the Diocese of Menevia.

Details

In 2007, there were 27,561 Catholics in the diocese which was served by 34 diocesan priests, 19 religious priests, 9 non-ordained male religious and 100 female religious. There are 34 Catholic educational institutions in the then-diocese, including three secondary schools:

• St Joseph's Catholic School and Sixth-Form Centre, Port Talbot

• St John Lloyd Catholic Comprehensive School, Llanelli
• Bishop Vaughan Catholic School, Swansea

Founded in 1965, St Joseph's School was the first Catholic comprehensive school in Wales.

The geographic remit consisted of the City and County of Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot, and the traditional counties of Brecknockshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire - an area of 9,310 square kilometres (3,590 sq mi) roughly.

The cathedra was located at St Joseph's Cathedral, Swansea. Situated within what was the diocese is the Welsh National Shrine of Our Lady of Cardigan at Cardigan.

Bishops

Ordinaries

• Francis Edward Joseph Mostyn † (4 July 1895 – 7 March 1921 appointed archbishop of Cardiff)
• Francis J. Vaughan † (21 June 1926 – 13 March 1935 died)
• Michael Joseph McGrath † (10 August 1935 – 20 June 1940 appointed archbishop of Cardiff)
• Daniel Joseph Hannon † (15 March 1941 – 26 April 1946 died)
• John Edward Petit † (8 February 1947 – 16 June 1972 retired)
• Langton Douglas Fox † (16 June 1972 – 5 February 1981 resigned)
• John Aloysius Ward, OFM Cap † (5 February 1981 succeeded – 25 March 1983 appointed archbishop of Cardiff)
• James Hannigan † (13 October 1983 – 12 February 1987 appointed bishop of Wrexham)
• Daniel Joseph Mullins † (12 February 1987 – 12 June 2001 retired)
• John Mark Jabalé (12 June 2001 – 16 October 2008 retired)
• Thomas Matthew Burns (16 October 2008 – 11 July 2019 retired)
• Mark O'Toole (Appointed 27 April 2022. Diocese merged with the Archdiocese of Cardiff in persona Episcopi. Installed on 23 June 2022)

Coadjutor Bishops

• John Peter Mark Jabalé, O.S.B. (2000-2001)
• John Aloysius Ward, O.F.M. Cap. † (1980-1981)

Auxiliary Bishop

• Langton Douglas Fox † (1965-1972), appointed Bishop of Menevia.

Another priest of this diocese who became bishop

• Peter Malcolm Brignall (priest here, 1978–1987), appointed Bishop of Wrexham, Wales in 2012.

Deaneries

There were a total of five deaneries in the Diocese of Menevia, all of which cover several churches in that area, overseen by a dean.

The deaneries are:

• Carmarthen Deanery
• Llandrindod Wells Deanery
• Pembroke Deanery
• Port Talbot Deanery
• Swansea Deanery

See also

• Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales
• Our Lady of Cardigan
• Caldey Abbey
• Chapel of St Non

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Roman Catholic Diocese of Menevia is a diocese of the catholic church of the Catholic Church.

• Part of: Ecclesiastical province of Cardiff

External links

• Official website

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Diocese of Menevia — (MENEVENSIS)

Menevia is said to be derived from Menapia, the name of an ancient Roman settlement supposed to have existed in Pembrokeshire, or Hen Meneu (vetus rubus) where St. David was born. From the time of the establishment of the four vicars Apostolic in England, in 1688, Wales belonged to the Vicariate of the Western District. In 1840 it was made a separate vicariate by Gregory XVI: in 1850 the Catholic hierarchy was re-established, and Wales was divided between the Dioceses of Shrewsbury and Newport. In 1895 the principality, with the exception of Glamorganshire was again formed into a separate vicariate Apostolic. Right Rev. Francis Joseph Mostyn, son of Sir Pyers Mostyn, eighth baronet, of Talacre in North Wales, was appointed first vicar Apostolic, his titular see being Ascalon. In 1898 he was transferred to Menevia when the vicariate was made a diocese by Leo XIII. The Bishop of Menevia is the only member of the hierarchy who holds one of the ancient titles of pre-Reformation times. The diocese is under the patronage of Our Lady Help of Christians, St. David, and St. Winefride, patrons of Wales. It covers 6500 square miles of country, most of which is rugged and mountainous; there are no large towns, so that the Catholic population of some 8500 souls is much scattered in country districts. To meet the spiritual needs of this little flock there are forty-three public churches, chapels, and stations, besides twelve chapels belonging to religious communities. The number of priests (in 1910) is eighty-two, twenty-eight seculars and fifty-four regulars; more than half this number of regulars is accounted for by the monastery of Breton Benedictines, at Caermaria, near Cardigan, the convent of Franciscan Capuchins at Pantasaph, and St. Beuno's College, the theologate of the English Jesuits. These religious, as well as Oblates of Mary Immaculate and Passionists, serve various missions throughout the diocese. There are convents of nine congregations of nuns, the Sisters of the Holy Ghost (White Sisters) having no less than seven. The church of Our Lady of Dolours, Wrexham, serves as pro-cathedral; on 10 August, 1909, a cathedral chapter, consisting of a provost and four canons, was erected.

The diocese is rich in relics of the Ages of Faith, thickly strewn as it is with churches once Catholic, but now used for Protestant worship, and with ruins of ancient Catholic sanctuaries and holy wells named after the countless saints of the British Church; most famous of these is the holy well of St. Winefride (q. v.) at Holywell, which is and always has been in Catholic hands. This miraculous well has been a centre of pilgrimage from the earliest days of authentic Welsh history, and the saint still attracts her votaries to the shrine, and dispenses her miraculous favours even in this unbelieving age. The beautiful building which stands over the well was erected towards the close of the fifteenth century. The mission has been served by the Society of Jesus since about 1600. St. Mary's College is a small episcopal college in the town, for the education of boys to supply priests for the diocese; the Welsh language is a prominent feature in the curriculum. The Diocese of Menevia is the restoration of the ancient Catholic Diocese of St. David's, the foundation of which, in the latter half of the sixth century, is traditionally attributed to that saint. The contention of recent historians that there were no territorial bishops in Wales at so early a date, but only monastic bishops without sees, is considered baseless by Dr. Zimmer, no partisan authority. "Though monasticism was strong in it, it did not impart to the (Welsh) Church either its character or its form" (Realencyklopädie, X, 224). The four independent Welsh sees were co-extensive with the four independent principalities that had come into being during the sixth century; Menevia with Dyfed, Llandaff with Gwent, St. Asaph with Powys, Bangor with Gwynedd.

The records of the history of the diocese before Norman times are very fragmentary, consisting of a few chance references in old chronicles, such as "Annales Cambriæ" and "Brut y Tywysogion" (Rolls Series). Originally corresponding with the boundaries of Dyfed (Demetia), St. David's eventually comprised all the country south of the River Dovey and west of the English border, with the exception of the greater part of Glamorganshire, in all some 3500 square miles. Though it was never an archbishopric, it is far from clear when St. David's came definitely under the metropolitan jurisdiction of Canterbury. About 1115, however, Henry I intruded a Norman, Bernard (1115-1147), into the see. Bernard's rule was wise and vigorous; but on the death of Henry he claimed metropolitan jurisdiction over Wales, and presented his suit unsuccessfully before six successive popes. This claim was afterwards revived in the time of Giraldus Cambrensis (q. v.). Among the more famous bishops who held the see before the Reformation may be mentioned Peter de Leia (1176-1203), who began the building of the present cathedral of St. David's; Henry Gower (1328-47); and Edward Vaughan (1509-23), who made considerable additions to the same; the learned John Thorshy (1347-50) afterwards transferred to the Archbishopric of York; Henry Chicheley (q. v.) (1408-14), afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; and the notorious William Barlow (1536-48), the so-called consecrator of Archbishop Parker in 1559. The last Catholic bishop, Henry Morgan (1554-59), was, like the rest of the Catholic bishops, deprived of his see by Elizabeth, but was saved by death from sharing their imprisonment for the Faith.

The oldest portions of the cathedral, dating from 1180 belong to the period of transition from the Early English to the Decorated style of architecture; the additions of Bishop Gower, including the beautiful stone rood screen, are excellent examples of the Decorated style, while to the north of the cathedral are the ruins of his magnificent episcopal palace. In 1862 a partial restoration of the cathedral was begun by Sir G. G. Scott. The shrine of St. David in the cathedral was a famous place of pilgrimage; it is said that by favour of Callistus II, who canonized the saint, two pilgrimages to St. David's were to be accounted equal to one to Rome: -

Meneviam pete bis, Roman adire si vis;

Merces æqua tibi redditur hic et ibi;

Roma semel, quantum dat bis Menevia, tantum

(ancient lines found at the shrine by Archbishop Peckham, 1240-92).

Catholic Directory (1840-1850; 1895-1910); FOLEY, Records of English Province S. J., IV (London, 1878), 528 (for Holywell); BEVAN, Diocesan Histories, St. David's (London, 1888); JONES AND FREEMAN, History of St. David's (Oxford, 1856); BARING GOULD AND FISHER, Lives of British Saints, II (London, 1908), 285; GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, De Jure et Statu Menevensis Ecclesiœ (Rolls Series); ZIMMER in Realencykl. für prot. Theol. und Kirche, s. vv. Keltische Kirche in Britannien und Irland; Dict. Nat. Biog., s. v. Gower; Vaughan; Thoresby; Chicheley; Barlow.

Kenelm Digby Beste.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• GCatholic.org
• Diocese of Menevia