Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiraspol (Russia)

On 11 February 2002, it was suppressed, its territory being merged into the Russian Diocese of Saint Clement at Saratov.

[1] The Diocese of Tiraspol (Dioecesis Tiraspolitanus) was established on 3 July 1848 on Czarist territory, split off as a suffragan see of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mohilev.

During the second half of the eighteenth century large numbers of German colonists went to Russia at the request of the Empress Catherine II.

[2] The first Roman Catholic bishop of Tiraspol, appointed in 1850, was Ferdinand Helanus Kahn, OP, a German Dominican.

[4] Bishop Kessler expanded the seminary, founded a publishing house, supported the work of male and female religious orders, visited all parishes of the giant diocese, and conducted 75,000 confirmations.