Any dioceses with three cities named?

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Digitonomy

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Dioceses are normally named for the city where the cathedral is located when they are erected. In some cases, the bishop may move to be closer to where the action is, and the site of the new cathedral will then be added to the name of the diocese - e.g. Galveston-Houston, St Paul-Minneapolis, etc. Are there any dioceses where this has happened a third time?

Also, does the original city remain in the name regardless, or only because a small co-cathedral is present? In other words, if a hurricane obliterated the co-cathedral in Galveston, and the bishop decided to govern the diocese entirely from Houston, would the name properly change?
 
Digitonomy said:
Dioceses are normally named for the city where the cathedral is located when they are erected. In some cases, the bishop may move to be closer to where the action is, and the site of the new cathedral will then be added to the name of the diocese - e.g. Galveston-Houston, St Paul-Minneapolis, etc. Are there any dioceses where this has happened a third time?
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I don’t think you’ll find any in north America, but try the old world. Structured View of Dioceses in Europe

(I don’t really know French, nor enough Franco-geography, but it looks like there are several in France, eg)

tee
 
Digitonomy said:
Dioceses are normally named for the city where the cathedral is located when they are erected. In some cases, the bishop may move to be closer to where the action is, and the site of the new cathedral will then be added to the name of the diocese - e.g. Galveston-Houston, St Paul-Minneapolis, etc. Are there any dioceses where this has happened a third time?

Also, does the original city remain in the name regardless, or only because a small co-cathedral is present? In other words, if a hurricane obliterated the co-cathedral in Galveston, and the bishop decided to govern the diocese entirely from Houston, would the name properly change?
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Good answer tee, I reckon the Italian Diocese of Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia is probably the record setter for most number of place-names 🙂

For the second question - the diocese consists of the city, not just the cathedral. So if the co-Cathedral of Galveston, for example, was destroyed, the bishop would still be in charge of the parishes of the CITY of Galveston (assuming the whole town wasn’t just totally wiped off the map or anything). So presumably he would still be Bishop of Galveston-Houston.

I think LA’s old Cathedral (St Vibiana’s) was actually closed for a while after an earthquake and while the new one was being built (I think it’s called Our Lady of the Angels, oddly enough 🙂 ). Didn’t stop the diocese from existing or still being called by the same name.
 
Thanks, those posts were both quite helpful.
LilyM said:
For the second question - the diocese consists of the city, not just the cathedral. So if the co-Cathedral of Galveston, for example, was destroyed, the bishop would still be in charge of the parishes of the CITY of Galveston (assuming the whole town wasn’t just totally wiped off the map or anything). So presumably he would still be Bishop of Galveston-Houston.
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He’s also in charge of the parishes of the cities of Deer Park, and Sugarland, and Conroe, etc, but that’s not relevant to the name of the diocese. The only edge Galveston has over them in my hypothetical is tradition. By your logic (which may well be correct), the name would change once the last parish in Galveston closed, or the island fell into the sea. Instead, I suspect the rules apply in one of two ways:
Either
  1. All previous episcopal sees are included in the current name of the diocese. Galveston will be in the name forever.
Or
2. A city must have a cathedral and/or some official episcopal presence in order to be included in the name.

If we can find out more information about Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia, we may be able to rule out #2.

Your mention of LA makes a good point but is different from my examples, because the bishop’s seat was still in LA, even if it was a folding chair in a gymnasium.
 
Digitonomy said:
I suspect the rules apply in one of two ways:
Either
  1. All previous episcopal sees are included in the current name of the diocese. Galveston will be in the name forever.
Or
2. A city must have a cathedral and/or some official episcopal presence in order to be included in the name.

If we can find out more information about Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia, we may be able to rule out #2.
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I don’t know about #2, but I think we *can *rule out #1, if we take a look at another example, the multiplied (even if parenthesized) Archdiocese of Montpellier (, Lodève, Béziers, Agde, e Saint-Pons-de-Thomières):
You may note it was erected in the 3rd C as the Diocese of Maguelonne, which name was changed to Diocese of Montpellier in 1536, and “Maguelonne” has not appeared as part of the name since.

tee
 
In the case of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, there’s no episcopal presence in St Andrews, unless you count the ruined cathedral. St Andrews was historically the first archbishopric in Scotland; during the Reformation, the diocese was suppressed. When the hierarchy was restored, the archdiocese became Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, presumably to reflect the capital city’s new status as an important national city, while respecting Saint Andrews’ history.

There goes Rule #2!
 
Digitonomy said:
Or
2. A city must have a cathedral and/or some official episcopal presence in order to be included in the name.

If we can find out more information about Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia, we may be able to rule out #2.
Click to expand...
Macerata et al. received its super name because it was formed in 1985 as a union of four existing dioceses. Oddly enough, one part of a previous diocese name was dropped (Osima e Cingoli is represented only by Cingoli) and Treia seems to be the alternate name for San Severino. (The diocese was incidentally just graced with the appointment of a new bishop: whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2007/02/b16-goes-ceimney-sweeping.html)II) don’t know if this example really provides us with information that could further a model of naming, though, because I’m pretty sure other mergers have simply taken a new name or folded one diocese into another without adding anything. My gut answer to the bigger question of what it takes to get your city in the diocesan name is that no physical presence is strictly required but the city has to be a seat of the bishop on paper. Historically there have been long times of non-residence by bishops in their technical seats - for instance, St. Francis de Sales never lived in Geneva because of the Calvinist takeover, but that was still his see.
 
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