DIOCESE OF RAGUSA (EPIDAURUS; RAGUSINA).
A bishopric in Dalmatia, suffragan of Zara. The episcopate of its first bishop Fabricanus was followed by a long series of bishops. For more than a thousand years Ragusa was an independent republic and consequently had archbishops. The first archbishop was Joannes II (d. 970). After the dissolution of the republic (1806) the see was vacant for a long time, until in 1830 Ragusa was once more the see of a bishop. At the present day the diocese has a Catholic population of 73,000, with 115 secular priests; religious orders of men, 93 members in 19 houses; religious orders of women, 51 members.
DOLCI, De Ragusini episcopatus antiquitate. Accedit eiusdem ecclesiæ antistitum series chronologica (Ancona, 1761); FARLATI, Illyricum sacrum (Venice, 1751-1819); COLETI, tom. VI, 1-285; THEINER, Vetera monumenta historica, II (Rome, 1839).
C. WOLFSGRUBER