Meissen, Diocese of

MEISSEN, Diocese of. - City and diocese in Saxony.

The diocese has an area of 17,460 sq. km. with a population of 6,042,219 inhabitants, of whom 592,531 are Catholics. It has 93 parishes served by 293 diocesan priests and 38 regulars; it has a seminary, 7 male religious communities and 65 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 272).

The emperor Henry I founded in 930 the castle of Misni, on the upper Elbe, to fortify his dominion over the region and to make it a starting point for the spread of Christianity. Otto I organized the foundation of the diocese, which was confirmed by Pope John XII at the Synod of Ravenna in 967. The first bishop of M. was Burckhard, consecrated at Christmas of 968. The diocese comprised the Slavic territories of Dalaminza, Nisane, Diedesa, Milzane and Lusiza. Despite the zealous work of the bishops Eido (992-1015) and of St. Benno (1066-1106), Christianity did not easily take hold among the Slavic populations. Only in the period of the colonization of eastern Germany, in the 13th century, did the population of the eastern parts of the diocese also open itself to the Gospel. The bishops of M., although the territory of the diocese was not very extensive, were princes of the Empire, and from the 13th century had the right to mint coin. In 1365 Urban V named the archbishop of Prague legatus natus and also subjected the diocese of M. to him, dissolving the suffragan relationship it had toward Magdeburg. After bitter disputes at the beginning, the diocese became closely linked with Prague, and the bishop Thimo of Koldiz (1398-1410), a Bohemian, filled the principal dignities of the diocese with men of his own nationality. He himself lived in Prague and neglected his diocese. Therefore the margrave William I of Saxony obtained from Boniface IX in 1399 a bull by which the diocese was declared exempt and immediately subject to Rome. Under the bishops Caspar of Schönberg (1451-63) and his brother Dietrich (1463-76) the diocese recovered from the wounds suffered during the Hussite wars. John VII of Schleinitz (1518-36) submitted to the territorial authority of Duke George of Saxony and found in him a strong support against the Protestant Reformation. He restored discipline among the clergy and the laity and promoted the canonization of Bishop Benno. The last bishop, John IX of Haugwitz (1555-81), placed his power in the hands of the Cathedral Chapter and became a Protestant. The jurisdiction over Lusiza was transferred to the dean of Bautzen, and the apostolic nuncio incorporated it into the Chapter of that city and subjected it directly to the Pope. Thus the diocese passed under the administration of the electorate of Saxony. The Cathedral Chapter became Protestant and the monasteries of the city of M. were secularized.

With the apostolic constitution Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum of 24 May 1921, Pope Benedict XV reconstituted the diocese of M. with the see at Bautzen. The Chapter comprises a dean and four canons. The new diocese comprises the vicariate of Dresden and the apostolic prefecture of Bautzen for Lusiza. Since 1927 there has been an ecclesiastical seminary at Schmochtitz.

Bruno Wüstenberg