Bishop of Ossory
The Bishop of Ossory () is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishoprics. History. The diocese of Ossory was one of the twenty-four dioceses established at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 and coincided with the ancient Kingdom of Ossory (Osraige); this is unusual, as Christian dioceses are almost always named for cities, not for regions. The episcopal see has always  been in Kilkenny, the capital of Ossory at the time of the Synod of Rathbreasail. The erroneous belief that the cathedral was originally further north at Aghaboe is traced by John Bradley to a 16th-century misinterpretation of a 13th-century property transfer, combined with the fact that the abbey at the site which became St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, was a daughter house of Aghaboe Abbey. Following the Reformation, there were parallel apostolic successions. In the Church of Ireland, the see of Ossory combined with Ferns and Leighlin to form the united bishopric of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin in  1835. In the Roman Catholic Church, the title continues as a separate bishopric. The bishop's seat (cathedra) is located at St. Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny. The most recent Ordinary was the Most Reverend Dermot Farrell, who was appointed by the Holy See on 3 January 2018 and ordained bishop on 11 March 2018. Pre-diocesan succession. The following list of bishops is inscribed in St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny and was listed on the Roman Catholic diocese's website. Bishops in the early Irish church ruled over a kingdom, in this case, Osraige or Ossory, but were also often  associated with a particular monastery and may have been in some matters subordinate to its abbot.