The Diocese includes most of County Kilkenny and portions of Counties Laois and Offaly. There are 42 parishes in the diocese, covering an area of 1,972 square kilometres with a total Catholic population of 76,790 (2005). Suffragan of the archdiocese of Dublin. Early missionaries were Saint Kieran and Saint Canice. Interesting relics of earlier days of the diocese are its Norman castles, round towers, and ruins of Kells Priory, Inistioge, the Dominican priory of Rosebercon, the Cistercian abbey of Jerpoint, the Franciscan Black Abbey, and Saint John's priory. The old cathedral at Kilkenny dating from about 1200, one of the largest ecclesiastical buildings of Ireland, has been in Protestant hands since the Reformation; extensive restorations were made in 1865. See also
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