Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda

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Diocese of Fulda Dioecesis Fuldensis Bistum Fulda
Saint Elisabeth second patron
Secular priests	262
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Michael Gerber
Auxiliary Bishops	Karlheinz Diez
Vicar General	Christof Steinert
Bishops emeritus	Heinz Josef Algermissen
Map
Current extent of the Diocese
Website
bistum-fulda.de

The Diocese of Fulda (

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 4 November 751,

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

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 5 October 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 Bismarck 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

During the partition of Germany after

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.

Patron saints of the diocese

• Saint Boniface (main patron)
• Saint
  Elisabeth of Hungary
  (secondary patron)
• Saint Bardo
• Saint Leoba
• Saint Rabanus Maurus
• Saint Sturm

Ordinaries

For a list of medieval abbots see

1. Amand von Buseck, O.S.B. (1738–1756)
2. Adalbert von Walderdorf, O.S.B. (1757–1759)
3. Heinrich von Bibra, O.S.B. (1759–1788)
4. Adalbert Freiherr (Wilhelm Adolph Heinrich) von Harstall, O.S.B. (1788–1814)
   • Heinrich Freiherr (Philipp Ernst) von Warnsdorf, O.S.B. (1814–1817),
     vicar apostolic
5. Johann Adam Rieger (1828–1831)
6. Johann Leonhard Pfaff (1831–1848)
7. Christoph Florentius Kött (1848–1873)
8. Georg von Kopp (1881–1887)
9. Joseph Weyland (1887–1894)
10. Georg Ignatz Komp
    (1894–1898)
11. Adalbert Endert (1898–1906)
12. Joseph Damian Schmitt (1906–1939)
13. Johann Baptist Dietz (1939–1958)
14. Adolf Bolte (1959–1974)
15. Eduard Schick (1974–1982)
16. Johannes Dyba (1983–2000)
17. Heinz Josef Algermissen (2001–2018)
18. Michael Gerber (from 2019)

References

External links

• Homepage of the diocese (German)
• Diocese of Fulda on Catholic Encyclopedia

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