Diocese of Fulda
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| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Country: | Germany |
| Ecclesiastical province: | Paderborn |
| Metropolitan: | Paderborn |
| Rite: | Latin Rite |
| Area: | 10,000 km² |
| Population: Total: Catholics: |
3,212,000 (2004) 424,875 (13.2%) |
| Cathedral: | Fulda Cathedral |
| Patron saint: | Saint Boniface main patron Saint Elisabeth second patron |
| Parishes: | 251 |
| Diocesan Priests: | 220 |
| Ordinaries | |
| Bishop: | Heinz Josef Algermissen |
| Auxiliary Bishop: | Karlheinz Diez Johannes Kapp (emeritus) |
| Vicar General: | Peter-Martin Schmitt |
| Map | |
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The Diocese of Fulda (Lat. Dioecesis Fulensis) is a diocese in the north of the German state of Hessen. It is a Suffragan Diocese of the Archdiocese of Paderborn. The bishop's see is in the Cathedral of Fulda.
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[edit] History
The history of the Diocese of Fulda goes back to the founding of a monastery by Saint Boniface in 744. Boniface named Saint Sturm the abbot of the monastery.
On November 4, 751, Pope Zachary decreed that the monastery would be under the control of any diocese but rather directly under the Pope. This special relationship with Rome is illustrated still today in the statue of Saint Peter that stands in the Cathedral. Because Boniface's expressly requested that his body be taken to Fulda after his death (rather than to Mainz or Utrecht), the area became a popular destination for pilgrims. Boniface, along with Sturm, were named the patron saints of the monastery and later of the diocese.
Through gifts and donations, the monastery's influence grew ever stronger in the following centuries. Under Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century, the monastery became the scientific center of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1220 the abbey was elevated to an abbey-principality by Frederick II. In 1571 Jesuits settled in Fulda and made a considerable contribution to the efforts of the Counter-Reformation.
During the reign of Prince-abbot Balthasar von Dernbach (1570-1576 and 1602-1606), the region was the site of extensive witch-hunts with 300 witch-trials carried out in three years. This number made Fulda one of the central areas of the early-modern European witch-hunts.
On October 5, 1752, Pope Benedict XIV raised the abbey to the level of a diocese.
In 1802, with the German mediatisation, the political principality of the diocese was dissolved, but the diocese itself remained. Prince-Bishop Adalbert von Harstall remained the Bishop of the diocese until his death in 1814. After his death the diocese was overseen by an administrator rather than a Bishop. The borders of the diocese were altered by papal bulls in 1821 and 1827. In 1857, the diocese was expanded to include the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar. From 1873 to 1881, during the Kulturkampf, when Chancellor Otto von Bismark attempted to lessen the political power of the church, the Bishop's seat sat empty again.
In 1929 the diocese lost some regions in the area of Frankfurt am Main to the diocese of Limburg, receiving the predominant catholic commissariat in Heiligenstadt and the deanery of Erfurt from the diocese of Paderborn.
During the partition of Germany after the Second World War it became much more difficult for the Bishop of Fulda, as well as the Bishop of Würzburg, to conduct the business of his office in the parts of his diocese which lay in the Eastern zone. Therefore, 1946 saw the appointment of the provost of the Erfurt Cathedral to the position of vicar general of the eastern sections of both the Fuldean and Würzburger diocese. In 1953 he was made auxiliary bishop of the region. With the reordering of the Catholic Church in East Germany, in 1973, by decree of the Holy See, the East German regions of both diocese were reassigned to the Episcopal Office of Erfurt-Meiningen (German:Bischöfliche Amt Erfurt-Meiningen). The leader of the Episcopal Office was an apostolic administrator and titular bishop.
After an agreement between the Holy See and the German state of Thuringia, regarding the formation of the diocese of Erfurt on June 14, 1994, on July 8, the Episcopal Office was made a diocese in itself by Pope John Paul II. Only the deanery of Geisa in the Thuringian Rhön Mountains was returned to the diocese of Fulda, by virtue of their very close historical connection.
One peculiarity is the curate of Ostheim, which according to church law as a historical part of Thuringia still belongs to the diocese of Fulda, but since 1945 has been administered by the diocese of Würzburg.
[edit] Patron saints of the diocese
- Saint Boniface (main patron)
- Saint Elisabeth of Hungary (secondary patron)
- Saint Bardo
- Saint Leoba
- Saint Rabanus Maurus
- Saint Sturm
For a list of medieval abbots see Rulers of Fulda until Secularization
[edit] Ordinaries
- Amand von Buseck, O.S.B. † (11 Dec 1738 Appointed - 4 Dec 1756 Died)
- Adalbert von Walderdorf, O.S.B. † (17 Jan 1757 Appointed - 16 Sep 1759 Died)
- Heinrich von Bibra, O.S.B. † (22 Oct 1759 Appointed - 25 Sep 1788 Died)
- Adalbert Freiherr (Wilhelm Adolph Heinrich) von Harstall, O.S.B. † (18 Nov 1788 Appointed - 8 Oct 1814 Died)
- Heinrich Freiherr (Philipp Ernst) von Warnsdorf, O.S.B. † (6 Oct 1814 Appointed - 17 Feb 1817 Died)
- Johann Adam Rieger † (23 Jun 1828 Appointed - 30 Jul 1831 Died)
- Johann Leonard Pfaff † (15 Nov 1831 Appointed - 3 Jan 1848 Died)
- Christoph Florentius Kött † (29 Mar 1848 Appointed - 14 Oct 1873 Died)
- Georg von Kopp † (15 Nov 1881 Appointed - 9 Aug 1887 Appointed, Bishop of Wrocław)
- Joseph Weyland † (4 Nov 1887 Appointed - 11 Jan 1894 Died)
- Georg Ignatz Komp † (27 Apr 1894 Appointed - 21 Mar 1898 Appointed, Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau)
- Adalbert Endert † (18 Jul 1898 Appointed - 17 Jul 1906 Died)
- Joseph Damian Schmitt † (29 Dec 1906 Appointed - 10 Apr 1939 Died)
- Johann Baptist Dietz † (10 Apr 1939 Succeeded - 24 Oct 1958 Retired)
- Adolf Bolte † (30 Jun 1959 Appointed - 5 Apr 1974 Died)
- Eduard Schick † (18 Dec 1974 Appointed - 1 Jul 1982 Retired)
- Johannes Dyba † (1 Jun 1983 Appointed - 23 Jul 2000 Died)
- Heinz Josef Algermissen (20 Jun 2001 Appointed - )
[edit] External links
This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of January 9, 2008.
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