Diocese of Oldenburg
The Diocese of Oldenburg is a former Roman Catholic diocese in what is now Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg , which existed from around 970 to 1160.
history
The name Aldinburg , later Oldenburg , came about as a translation of the Slavic place name Starigrad "Old Castle". Starigrad was the capital of the Elbe Slavic Wagrier and the seat of their prince. Nearby was a shrine to the Vagrian god Prove . This made the Oldenburg a good starting point for the missionary work of the Slavs.
founding
The Diocese of Oldenburg in Holstein was founded by Archbishop Adaldag of Hamburg on behalf of Emperor Otto I, probably in 972 for the purpose of Christianizing the Abodritic settlement areas in what is now East Holstein and Mecklenburg . There are also views that support a foundation as early as 968 or before 950.
Several Christian body graves and a wooden church building on the Oldenburg have already been proven by excavations around 950. According to the grave goods, these are the graves of elites, very likely members of the royal family.
A clergyman named Egward was appointed by Adaldag as the first bishop of Oldenburg . The news about an allegedly first bishop named Marco or Merka , who is documented as bishop of Schleswig, is very uncertain. Instead, it is assumed that Archbishop Adaldag had given the Schleswig bishop a missionary order for the area of the Abodrite Empire. The territory of the diocese extended from the Danish border on the Bay of Kiel to the border of the diocese of Havelberg in the south, but was limited to the actual Wagrien (Ostholstein) in the next century. As a suffragan, Oldenburg was subordinate to the archbishopric of Bremen at that time .
Slavic uprisings
Adam von Bremen reports in his Hamburg Church History that all Slavs in the diocese had committed themselves to Christianity for seventy or more years, namely “ during the entire time of the Ottonians ”. But then there was an uprising that would have removed the ecclesiastical order in Wagrien . The dating of these passages is controversial in literature and ranges from 983, the year of the Slavic uprising of the Liutizen , to the year 1018, the year of the expulsion of the Christian velvet ruler Mstislaw from Mecklenburg . According to research, it is most likely that the adherents of the old faith did not destroy the bishopric and the Johanneskirche on the Oldenburg until 990. That year, Bishop Folkward was expelled from his diocese. His successor Reinbert , ordained as the new bishop of Oldenburg, never set foot there and, like his successor, resided on the Mecklenburg. After that, the bishopric seems to have remained vacant.
The Archbishop of Bremen made a fresh start in 1043, when the Christian Slavic prince Gottschalk became the velvet ruler of the Abodritic tribal association and tried to convert his people to Christianity. In 1062 the new dioceses of Mecklenburg under Bishop Johannes I Scotus and Ratzeburg under Bishop Aristo were spun off from the Diocese of Oldenburg . This peaceful intermediate phase ended in 1066 with a renewed Slav uprising under the leadership of Gottschalk's brother-in-law Blusso, who swept away everything Christian in the country. Bishop Ezzo escaped the slaughter, but the Oldenburg diocese disappeared from history for over 80 years.
New beginning of the Slavic mission
In the 12th century Heinrich the Lion pushed the colonization in the Slavic settlement areas of the eastern North Elbingen and in Mecklenburg again in a second big attempt. The Slavic mission was resumed in 1126 from Bremen and Hamburg. In 1134, at the suggestion of the bishop , Emperor Lothar presented it to the bishopric of Burg and Segeberg monastery .
Bishop Vicelin
In the course of this second colonization, the old Wendish missionary diocese of Oldenburg was formally restored. In 1149 Vizelin was installed as the new Oldenburg bishop after the bishopric had been orphaned for over 80 years. Because the area around Oldenburg itself was still a Wendish retreat and the restoration of the old bishopric was not yet possible for security reasons, Bishop Vicelin moved to Bosau , had the Petrikirche built there (the first so-called Vicelin Church) and carried out his official duties Bosau out. A few days after the consecration of the church in Bosau (1152) Vicelin suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right side and severely impaired his ability to speak. Two years later he died on December 12, 1154 in Neumünster.
Bishop Gerold
Under his successor, Bishop Gerold , the bishop's court Eutin was founded in 1156 and the Oldenburg bishopric was moved to Lübeck in 1160 (according to recent research, perhaps not until 1163) at the instigation of Heinrich the Lion. Bishop Gerold died in 1163 with his friend Helmold in Bosau. With him the Diocese of Oldenburg ends.
List of the bishops of the Diocese of Oldenburg
| Bishops | from | to | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egward | around 968/972 | at 973 | 1st Bishop of Oldenburg |
| Wago | at 973 | around 983 | |
| Egizo (Ekizo, Eziko) | around 983 | around 988 | then probably Bishop of Schleswig |
| Volkward (Folkward) | 989 | 990 | |
| Reinbert | 992 | 1013 | last resided on the Mecklenburg |
| Bernhard | 1013 | 1023 | |
| Reinhold | 1023 | 1030 | |
| Meinher | 1030 | 1038 | |
| Abelin | 1038 | 1048 | |
| Ehrenfried (Ezzo) | 1051 | 1066 | |
| Vice-Lady | 1149 | 1154 | Bishopric Bosau |
| Gerold | 1154 | 1160 (1163) | Bishopric Eutin |
See also
- Diocese of Lübeck
- Apostolic Vicariate of the North
- List of former Catholic dioceses
- List of Roman Catholic Dioceses
- St. Johannis Church (Oldenburg in Holstein) (former cathedral)
- Petrikirche in Bosau
literature
- Helmut Beumann : The establishment of the Oldenburg diocese and the mission policy of Otto the Elder. Size In: Horst Fuhrmann (Ed.): From Imperial History and Nordic History. Klett, Stuttgart 1972, pp. 54-69. PDF
- Chef, Rumold: 800 years of St. Johanniskirche in Oldenburg. In: Festschrift for the 850th anniversary of the St. Johanniskirche in Oldenburg in Holstein. Church council of the evg.-luth. Parish of Oldenburg in Holstein, Oldenburg 2007. (Original article from 1957 with historical additions by Jürgen Eberhardt 2007.)
- Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments, Volume 10: Hanseatic City of Lübeck - Ostholstein - Kiel. von Zabern, Mainz 1972.
Web link
- History of the Archdiocese of Hamburg. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007 ; Retrieved December 5, 2017 .