HILDESHEIM, DIOCESE of. — The city of H., situated at the northwestern extremity of the Harzgebirge and at the beginning of the North German plain, has 24,000 Catholics out of a population of 70,000. The first missionary foundation dates from about 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 primitive Marian Chapel of Louis the Pious (the legend of the thousand-year-old rosebush) was incorporated by Bishop Altfried (851–74) as the eastern apse into the cathedral that he built. Under Altfried occurred the first monastic foundations: Gandersheim (852) and Lamspringe (872). Under Bishop Othwin (962) the relics of St. Epiphanius of Pavia were translated. The golden age of the diocese extended to the middle of the 13th century.
Outstanding monuments: the erection of St. Michael’s, with its Benedictine abbey, dates from the time of Bishop Bernward (993–1022), the finest church of the early Romanesque style, with valuable works of goldsmithery, illumination, and cast bronze preserved to this day (Bernward’s doors, the Column of Christ, Bernward’s Cross, etc.). Under Bishop Godehard (1022–38), more than 30 new churches were erected, including St. Maurice and St. Andrew in H. Under Bishop Hezilo (1054–79), Altfried’s cathedral, destroyed by fire, was rebuilt: a three-nave Romanesque basilica (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 Augustinian Canons. At the Council of Reims in 1131, Bishop Bernward promoted 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 the Franciscans, Dominicans (in 1233 Albert the Great was a lecturer in H.), and the Sisters of St. Mary Magdalene to the diocese. During his administration the celebrated baptismal font was made (about 1240). From the middle of the 13th century political interests prevailed, and the morals of the Chapter and 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 condition of the diocese was almost completely in ruins. As a result of the conflicts of 1523, most of the territory passed to the princes of Braunschweig, who made it Protestant. In 1542 the Reformation 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 chosen from 1573 to 1763, saved the diocese. Under Bishop Ernest (1573–1612), the Jesuits were called in (Josephinum gymnasium); under Bishop Joseph Clemens (1703–21), the Baroque style was introduced from the south. Faith and religious life were strengthened through spiritual exercises, conferences of the clergy, and charitable institutions. In 1802–1803 the ecclesiastical 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 missions of the north, to the right of the Weser and in the duchy of Braunschweig, were assigned to the diocese; thus the diocese acquired a territory of more than 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). During the Second World War, the cities belonging to the diocese suffered destruction: Hannover, H., and Braunschweig. Since 1945 there has been a sharp increase in the number of Catholics owing to the immigration of those expelled from the eastern region of Germany: whereas in 1940 the diocese had approximately 250,000 Catholics among 3 million non-Catholics, in 1950 it had approximately 685,000 Catholics among 4,230,000 non-Catholics. The need to establish new centers of pastoral care is shown by 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, including 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.