Niekanoniczna Diecezja Pińska (1795-1798). Powstanie, terytorium i wewnętrzny podział administracyjny
Non-canonical Diocese of Pinsk (1795–1798). Formation, territory and internal administrative division

Summary/Abstract: Even before the signing of the treaties finally dissolving the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Empress Catherine II made a new administrative division of the Catholic Church in Russia on 6–17 September, 1795, treating the acquired lands as the property of Russia. She did not consult the Holy See on her decisions, thereby disregarding the generally accepted principle that the creation and abolition of dioceses and the appointment of ordinaries is a papal prerogative. One of the dioceses she created was the Diocese of Pinsk, whose Ordinary by her appointment was the former Bishop of Kyiv, Kasper Kazimierz Cieciszowski, residing in Zhytomyr. She subordinated parishes and monasteries in the Minsk and Volhynian governorates to him. The bishop exercised authority over the area in accordance with ecclesiastical law, as he had obtained from the Warsaw-based papal delegate WawrzyniecLitta the powers of administrator over the area incorporated into the diocese of Pinsk and exceeding the boundaries of the formally existing diocese of Kyiv, of which he was the legal ordinary. For a reason that is difficult to hypothesise, he did not establish the diocesan capital in Pinsk, despite the express wish of Catherine II. He did not designate any church in Pinsk as a cathedral, did not move the chapter and bishop’s residence there, and did not open a consistory there. He did, however, leave Zhytomyr for Berdychiv. He also renamed the consistory general of the Kyiv Diocese as the consistory general of the Pinsk Diocese. After receiving ecclesiastical authority to administer the diocese, most likely in June or July 1796, he divided the diocese into 4 district officialities (Zhytomyr, Lutsk, Minsk and Nyasvizh) and 19 deaneries. After the territorial and administrative reform of Russia announced by Emperor Paul I in December 1797 and implemented in January and February 1798, he re-divided the Pinsk diocese into deaneries, bringing them as close as possible to the state administrative division. The Diocese of Pinsk ceased to exist as a result of an agreement between the Holy See and the royal court in St Petersburg on a new administrative division of the Catholic Church in Russia (Paul I’s ukase of 28 April / 9 May 1798; W. Litta’s decrees of 7, 8 and 9 August 1798).

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