Diocese of Candia, Creta, La Canea
Candien(sis)
Suffragan diocese · Latin Church · Candia, Creta, La Canea, Greece
The Diocese of Crete (historically Candia, with Chania/La Canea) is a Latin rite see covering the island of Crete in Greece. The see has long been without a resident bishop and is governed by apostolic administrators; Bishop Petros Stefanou of Syros administered it from 2014 until 2025. Since 11 April 2025 Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos has been apostolic administrator.
The see
- Rank
- Suffragan diocese
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 1213
- Latin
- Candien(sis)
- Annuario code
- 001001043
The see in figures
- Catholics
- 5,000
- Population
- 512,000
- Catholic share
- 1.0%
- Extent
- 8,393 km²
- Catholics per km²
- 0.6
of the people living within its bounds
Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.
The bishop
The register holds no ordinary for this see. Where a chair is vacant the vacancy is the fact, and it is recorded rather than filled in. See the bishop.
The cathedral
Cathedral of the Assumption, Chania stands in Candia, Creta, La Canea, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.
On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.
History
Crete, the Greek island, holds a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church: the Diocese of Crete (Latin: Dioecesis Candiensis), which sits within the ecclesiastical province of Naxos, Andros, Tinos and Mykonos.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
The see's own website · Wikipedia
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].