OSNABRÜCK. – City and diocese in Germany, suffragan of Cologne. Over an area of 45,797 sq. km. there is a population of 6,613,146 inhabitants, of whom 855,692 are Catholics, distributed among 420 parishes served by 690 diocesan priests and 24 religious priests; it has 14 male and 226 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 304).
It was founded as a missionary station in 780 and raised to a diocese in 790. The first bishop was Wiho, a disciple of s. Bonifacio, who died in 804. The diocese is first mentioned with certainty in a bull of Charlemagne in 803. In 834 the missionary station of Meppen was annexed to the diocese, in 855 that of Visbek, and in 860 the other of Wiedenbrück. Highly active bishops followed, founding extensive ecclesiastical fiefs. The principal church of O. was transformed into a cathedral by Bishop Egilmaro (d. 918), who was also the first historiographer of O. During his government, disputes began between the monasteries of Corvey and Herford and the bishop of O. over tithes; they continued under one of the greatest bishops of O., namely Benno II (1068–88), known for his diplomatic negotiations with Gregorio VII on behalf of Enrico IV. He also built the western part of the cathedral of O. and the cathedrals of Spira and Goslar. The disputes with the two abbeys ended under Bishop Filippo von Katzenellnbogen (1141–73). Bruno von Isenburg (1250–58) laid the foundations of the church of S. Giovanni, completed in 1292 under Corrado II von Rietberg (1269–97).
He summoned the Augustinians and Dominicans to O. and founded institutions for elderly ladies (Domschwesternhaus and St. Johannes-Schwesternhaus). Despite the flourishing religious life and the high culture manifested in the goldsmiths’ work of the so-called master of O. and others, the history of the diocese is full of disputes between the curia, the nobility, and the neighboring bishops. During the government of the 53rd bishop of O., Erich von Braunschweig (1508–32), Luther promulgated his theses in Wittenberg. The bishop, however, energetically rejected his doctrine. His successor, on the other hand, Francesco di Waldeck (1533–53), had an “evangelical” ecclesiastical regulation drawn up by the superintendent Bonnos of Lubecca, in which the S. Messa was suppressed. This regulation became obligatory throughout the diocese in 1544. The secular clergy obeyed, but the Cathedral Chapter rejected the regulation. In 1547 the bishop joined the Schmalkalden League, which resulted in the imperial troops’ entry into O. Paolo III called the bishop to Rome, unfortunately without success, in order to reach a satisfactory solution. His successor Johannes von Hoya (1553–74), advised by s. Pietro Canisio, was frankly Catholic in sentiment; but the bishops who followed inclined toward Protestantism. A change occurred under Eitel Friedrich von Hohenzollern (1623–25). He called in the Jesuits and removed the pastors of Protestant sympathies. He was followed by the most celebrated bishop of O. of this period, Franz Wilh. von Wartenburg (1625–61), a cardinal from 1661. He continued the reforms through diocesan synods, restored the entire diocese to Catholicism, and in 1631 founded a university in O. His work was obstructed by the Swedish invasion (1633–50). By the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the bishops of O. obtained 30 parishes and the Protestants 20. The diocese lost the county of Lingen and Westervald to the diocese of Deventer, and another part to the diocese of Münster. In 1802 the diocese underwent secularization, during which an apostolic administrator served in the person of Clemens von Gruben. In 1857 P. Melchers was elected bishop, formerly bishop of Münster and, from 1866, archbishop of Cologne. From 1914 to the present (1951), the bishop of O. has been Wilhelm Berning, president of the Union of S. Raffaele (Emigration Assistance) and appointed by the Holy See to direct the pastoral care of German-speaking people in overseas countries and in Eastern Europe.