HILDESHEIM, Diocese of. - The city of H., situated at the northwestern extremity of the Harz mountains and at the beginning of the North German plain, has 24,000 Catholics out of 70,000 inhabitants. The first missionary foundation dates back to c. 775, during Charlemagne's wars against the Saxons. It was erected as a diocese, under the patronage of the Assumption of Mary, by Louis the Pious on 1 July 815 for the Ostphalian part of Saxony. The original Marian chapel of Louis the Pious (legend of the thousand-year rosebush) was incorporated by Bishop Altfried (851-74) as the eastern apse into the cathedral built by him. Under Altfried came the first monastic foundations: Gandersheim (852) and Lamspringe (872). Under Bishop Othwin (962) occurred the translation of the relics of St. Epiphanius of Pavia. The golden age of the diocese extends to the middle of the 13th century.
Notable monuments: the erection of St. Michael with its Benedictine abbey dates to the time of Bishop Bernward (993-1022), the most beautiful church in the old Romanesque style, with valuable works, preserved to this day, of goldsmithing, miniature painting, and cast bronze (the Bernward doors, the column of Christ, the Bernward cross, etc.). Under Bishop Godehard (1022-38) more than 30 new churches were erected, among them St. Maurice and St. Andrew in H. Under Bishop Hezilo (1054-79) came the rebuilding of Altfried's cathedral, destroyed by a fire: a Romanesque basilica with three naves (destroyed on 22 March 1945) with a cloister. In the 12th century there were numerous monastic foundations of Benedictines, Cistercians (Amelunxborn, the first Cistercian monastery in Lower Saxony) and Canons Regular. Bishop Bernward promoted at the Council of Reims in 1131 the canonization of Godehard and built the church of St. Godehard with an adjoining Benedictine monastery. The cult of this saint spread as far as northern Italy. The excellent Bishop Conrad II (1221-1246) called into the diocese the Franciscans, the Dominicans (in 1233 Albert the Great was a lecturer in H.) and the Sisters of St. Mary Magdalene. Under his rule the famous baptismal font was made (c. 1240). From the middle of the 13th century political interests prevailed and the morals of the Chapter and of the bishops declined. Despite the monastic reform begun in 1414 (Brothers of the Common Life: Nicholas of Cusa in H. in 1491), in the 16th century the conditions of the diocese were almost completely in ruin. Following the struggles of 1523 the greater part of the territory passed to the princes of Braunschweig, who made it Protestant. In 1542 the reform was introduced in the city of H. In 1557 only 12 Catholic villages still belonged to the bishopric. The connection with the princely house of Bavaria, from which the bishops were taken from 1573 to 1763, saved the diocese. Under Bishop Ernest (1573-1612) the Jesuits were called
(Josephinum gymnasium), under Bishop Joseph Clemens (1703-21) the Baroque style was introduced from the south. Faith and religious life were strengthened by means of spiritual exercises, conferences of the clergy and charitable institutions. In 1802-1803 the episcopal principality was secularized. By the bull Impensa Romanorum sollicitudo of 26 March 1824 and the papal decree of 2 July 1834, the Catholic part of the Untereichsfeld and the extensive diaspora territories of the northern missions, on the right of the Weser and of the duchy of Braunschweig, were assigned to the diocese: thus the diocese had a territory of over 32,000 sq km. Bishop Eduard Jakob Wedekin (1849-70) inaugurated the modern system of pastoral care, in accordance with which his successors continued the work, among them Adolf Bertram (1906-14), Joseph Ernst (1915-28), Nikolaus Bares (1929-34) and Joseph Godehard Machens (from 1934). In the Second World War the cities belonging to the diocese suffered destruction: Hannover, H., Braunschweig. From 1945 there has been a strong increase in Catholics due to the immigration of those expelled from the eastern zone of Germany: whereas in 1940 the diocese counted c. 250,000 Catholics out of 3 million non-Catholics, in 1950 it counts c. 685,000 Catholics out of 4,230,000 non-Catholics. The need for the erection of new centers of pastoral care appears from the following data (1940): 122 parishes, 43 curacies, 225 churches and public oratories, 311 diocesan priests and 16 secular priests from other dioceses, 3 male religious orders with 4 houses and 3 female religious orders with 102 houses, among them the mother congregation of the Vincentian sisters of H.; in 1950: 122 parishes, 195 curacies, 240 churches and public oratories, 259 diocesan priests, 175 priests from other dioceses, 5 male religious orders with 7 houses, and 10 female religious orders with 132 houses. In 1949 an auxiliary bishop was appointed.