Diocese of Aarhus
The diocese of Aarhus (Danish Aarhus Stift , formerly Århus Stift ) is one of ten dioceses of the Danish People's Church . It extends over a large part of north-east Jutland including some offshore islands and is divided into 14 provosts. Its seat is the city of Aarhus , where Aarhus Cathedral is the episcopal church.
history
The diocese of Aarhus was first mentioned in 948, when Archbishop Adaldag of Hamburg-Bremen consecrated Reginbrand as mission bishop of Aarhus, for which he had obtained the approval of Pope Agapitus II . After Reginbrand's death in 988, the diocese of Aarhus was dissolved and the whole of Jutland now formed a single diocese with its seat in Viborg or Ribe . In 1060 the diocese of Aarhus was restored and received as the new bishop Christian , who was installed by Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen. Around 1065 the diocesan boundaries were definitely established. Until 1104 the diocese was a suffragan diocese of Hamburg-Bremen, then one of the newly established archdiocese of Lund . It bordered the diocese of Viborg to the north, the Kattegat to the east, and the Ribe diocese to the south and west .
Bishop Ulfketel (1102–1134) planned the city of Aarhus and had a wooden church built there from 1102, in which the relics of St. Clement , Bishop of Rome, were. Around 1180 the venerable Niels , illegitimate son of the Danish King Knut V , was buried in the cemetery of this church. The offerings left on his grave made it possible for Bishop Peder Vognsen to erect a stone successor to the church, St. Clement's Cathedral in Aarhus, which was begun around 1201 . This was completed around 1263, but mostly burned down in 1330, whereupon the bishops Peder Jensen Lodehat (1386–1395) and Bo Mogensen (1395–1424) were responsible for the construction of the current building. The Cistercian Abbey Øm was founded by the militant Bishop Svend Udsson (1166–1191).
At the beginning of the 16th century, shortly before the introduction of the Reformation , the Aarhus diocese comprised around 360 parishes and 14 monasteries. The chapter of Aarhus Cathedral consisted of 34 canons. The Benedictines owned monasteries in Esbenbeek, Vœr, Alling and Veierlov, the Augustinian canons in Tvilum, the Cistercians in Øm (their monastery was only dissolved in 1560) and the Carthusians in Aarhus. There were also Dominican churches in Aarhus, Horsens and Randers, and Franciscan churches in Horsens and Randers. Until 1568 there was also a community of members of the Order of Malta in Horsens . After all, monks and nuns of the Birgittenorder maintained a monastery in Mariager from 1412 to 1592 . The last Catholic Bishop of Aarhus, Ove Bille , and Paulus Heliae, Prior of the Carmelite Monastery in Helsingør , opposed the introduction of the Reformation in vain. King Christian III had Ove Bille captured in 1536.
On September 2, 1537, Johannes Bugenhagen introduced superintendents as leaders for the then seven Danish bishoprics on behalf of the king . The first Lutheran superintendent (the title of bishop was only reintroduced in the 17th century) was Mads Lang (1537–1557). In the 18th century, the diocese was shaped by Pietism , but hardly affected by the great revivals of the 19th century. When the Diocese of Haderslev was founded in 1922, the southern part of the Diocese of Aarhus (largely today's Hedensted Commune ) fell to the new diocese.
Organization and management
The diocese of Aarhus had 657,439 members on January 1, 2017, which corresponds to 78.5% of the resident population. It has 336 parishes and approx. 330 pastors, some of them also in supra-parish service.
As in the other dioceses of the Danish People's Church, leadership in the diocese of Aarhus is jointly exercised by a bishop and a state-appointed administrative director ( stiftamtmand ) who, as a “layperson”, is primarily responsible for legal, financial and technical issues. Henrik Wigh-Poulsen has been Bishop of Aarhus since 2015, and the Statsforvaltningen's deputy director , Torben Sørensen , has served as the monastery since 2013 . The diocesan council ( stiftsråd ), which includes the bishop and the cathedral provost , pastors and church councils from the 14 provosts, has a significant say .
See also
literature
- Hans-Georg Aschoff : Aarhus. In: Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3rd edition, Volume 1 (1993), Col. 5f.
- A. Taylor: Aarhus. In: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques . Volume 1 (1912), Col. 2f.
- Arthur Taylor: Ancient See of Aarhus in Denmark . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 16, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1914.
Web links
- Århus Stift Official Homepage (Danish)