The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg was a short-lived (1559-1603) Latin Catholic

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

diocese in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

of the Archbishop of Utrecht, with episcopal see at

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

, on Walcheren (former) island in the Dutch

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

province.

History

Established on 12 May 1559 as Diocese of Middelburg on territory, covering the southwestern Dutch province of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

(Dutch ''Sea land'', at the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

coast and estuaries of the great rivers Rijn = Rhine, Schelde = Escaut and Maas = Meuse), canonically split-off from the huge, France-based

Diocese of Cambrai The Archdiocese of Cambrai ( la, Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Cambrai'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Hel ...

, which was simultaneously promoted an Archdiocese, like the then Diocese of Utrecht, which became Middelburg's Metropolitan. In 1603, during the

Eighty Years War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Ref ...

(when Habsburg lost most northern territory; including Middelburg after a long siege), the bishopric was suppressed, without a formal successor, its territory being included in the pre-diocesan

Dutch Mission The Holland Mission or Dutch Mission ( or ') (1592 – 1853) was the common name of a Catholic Church missionary district in the Low Countries during and after the Protestant Reformation. History Pre-reformation diocese and archdiocese of ...

'Batavia', while its incumbent was transferred to the richer, safer see of

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

(Dutch-speaking part of the countshin in the northwest of Belgium). The 1803.03.22 establishment of the Apostolic Vicariate of Breda (later enlarged and promoted to bishopric), including the same territory (then split off from the Diocese of ’s-Hertogenbosch), is considered as a restoration of the Middelburg see. Foundations for Middelburg's "stately and picturesque" cathedral (one of only two pre-Reformation cathedrals in The Netherlands, along with St. Martin's in Utrecht) were first laid in the 10th century; additional construction continued through the Middle Ages.

Episcopal ordinaries

(all

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while di ...

)http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/bred0.htm GCatholic ;''Suffragan Bishops of Middelburg'' * Nicolaas van der Borcht (1561.03.10 – death 1573.05.16) * Jan van Strijen (1576.06.04 – death 1594.07.08) * Karel-Filips de Rodoan (1600.01.10 – 1603.05.26), later Bishop of

(Belgium) (1569.09.16 – death 1594.05.12).

References

External links and sources

GCatholic
Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Europe History of Catholicism in the Netherlands {{Netherlands-stub