Catholic Intelligence

Archdiocese of Kraków

Cracovien(sis)

One of Poland's oldest sees, the Diocese of Kraków dates to the year 1000 and was raised to a metropolitan archdiocese in 1925. Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś was installed as archbishop in December 2025; its suffragans are Bielsko-Żywiec, Kielce and Tarnów.

The see

Rank
Metropolitan see
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
1000
Latin
Cracovien(sis)
Patron
Saint Stanislaus
Annuario code
001001905

The see in figures

Catholics
1,575,724
Population
1,627,236
Catholic share
96.8%

of the people living within its bounds

Priests
2,017
Catholics per priest
781
Extent
5,730 km²
Catholics per km²
275

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

Archbishop
Grzegorz Ryś
Born
27 April 1939
Birthplace
Raba Wyżna

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

Wawel Cathedral (Cathedral of Saints Stanislaus and Wenceslaus), Kraków stands in Kraków, 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.

The province of Kraków

This see is the metropolitan of its province.

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

Kraków, in Poland, is the seat of this Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church (Latin: Archidioecesis Metropolitae Cracovien(sis), Polish: Archidiecezja Krakowska). Weekly Mass attendance as of 2013 stood at 51.3% of the population, the fourth highest figure in Poland, behind the dioceses of Tarnów at 69.0%, Rzeszów at 64.1%, and Przemyśl at 58.8%.

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.

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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].