S'HERTOGENBOSCH, BOIS-LE-DUC, DIOCESE of. – City and diocese of the Netherlands. The city is the capital of North Brabant, somewhat south of the lower Meuse; the diocese comprises the eastern part of the province of North Brabant and the southern part of the province of Gelderland.
It has an area of 6,000 sq. km. and a population of 1,215,000 inhabitants, of whom 989,400 are Catholics, distributed among 358 parishes served by 791 diocesan priests and 1,370 religious; it has a major seminary at St Michielsgestel and a minor seminary at Haaren; it has 126 male and 327 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 376).
The diocese was erected by Paul IV on 12 May 1559 as a suffragan of Mechelen, with Francesco Sonnio as its first bishop. Until 1637, seven bishops governed it in difficult circumstances: Protestantism and the war against Spain. Catholicism was flourishing there anew when, in 1629, the city was conquered by the Republic of the Seven Provinces, which suppressed the Catholic religion. From 1657 until 1853, the diocese was administered by apostolic vicars. In the Concordat of 1827 between Pope Leo XII and King William I, it was stipulated that new dioceses would be restored in the Netherlands, including Bois-le-Duc; execution was delayed because of the revolutionary movements of 1830, and on 4 March 1853 Pius IX restored the diocese as a suffragan of Utrecht. Mgr Giovanni Zwijsen, apostolic vicar of Bois-le-Duc, was raised to the archbishopric of Utrecht; he resigned that see in 1868 and was appointed bishop of Bois-le-Duc. In 1865 the first Provincial Synod was held in the diocese. The Gothic Cathedral dedicated to St John the Evangelist, formerly a collegiate church since 1560, is remarkable. The first Romanesque building dates from 1210; the Gothic one was begun in 1280, but, devastated by a fire in 1419, was rebuilt in its present form between 1419 and 1520, with alterations in 1530; it measures 109.50 × 28.55 m. The building suffered greatly in 1566 and during the Calvinist period from 1629 to 1810. The restoration, carried out with contributions from the State, the province, the city, and the faithful of the diocese, was due to the initiative of Mgr Zwijsen, the reorganizer of the diocese. Inside, the miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin is greatly venerated. The Diocesan Museum is also precious.
Nimega (v.) there is the Catholic University founded in 1923; at Tilburg, the Catholic Higher School of Commerce.