The Diocese of Växjö () is one of 13 dioceses within the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden () is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.5 million members at year end 2023, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest List ...

. Its episcopal see is located in the city of

Växjö Växjö () is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 71,282 inhabitants (2020) out of a Municipalities of Sweden, municipal population of 97,349 (2024). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial ce ...

. The diocese was established in the 12th century as a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, but was taken over by the Church of Sweden as a result of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. The Lutheran Diocese of Växjö is situated in southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and includes most of the county of

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

at its north end, the southern and central parts of the county of Kalmar, the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Oland'' internationally) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. ...

in the east, the county of Kronoberg in the south, and a small part of the county of

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...

in the west. The diocese consists of 249 parishes, and has the highest church attendance in

.The Making of Regions of Germany and Sweden

History

Within the

, the ancient episcopal see of

comprised the regions Värend and Njudung in

Småland Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...

. The chapter of Vexiö consisted of a dean,

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...

, subdean, eleven prebendaries, and a schoolmaster. Little is known about the origin of the diocese. In 1126, King Sigurd Magnusson of Norway is known to have led a

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

to Christianize its inhabitants. The Diocese of Växjö may have been established by the Danish, or it may have separated from the Diocese of Linköping between 1164 and 1170. The diocese's second known bishop was Stenar, who was mentioned in two letters dating to 1183. In 1191 he quarreled with the Bishop of Linköping concerning the borders of their respective dioceses. Stenar was succeeded in 1193 by John Ehrengisleson. In the twelfth century, the construction of Växjö Cathedral began. The Cathedral made Växjö an important religious centre in the Diocese of Växjö. Saint Sigfrid allegedly lived and died in Växjö, and was buried in the cathedral at his death. He was the bishopric's patron saint and was canonized by

Pope Adrian IV Pope Adrian (or Hadrian) IV (; born Nicholas Breakspear (or Brekespear); 1 September 1159) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4 December 1154 until his death in 1159. Born in England, Adrian IV was the first Pope ...

in 1158. :s:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ancient See of Vexiö Saint Sigfrid's shrine was, until the Protestant Reformation, the center of the Cathedral of

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

and St. Sigfrid at Växjö. In 1205 the biography of Saint Sigfrid was written. Bishop Gregory (about 1241), or his successor, renewed the boundary dispute with the Bishop of Linköping, which was settled by the pope in 1248 or 1249. Bishop Bo (1287–91) appealed in a dispute to the

Archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Reformation in Denmark, Danish Reformation the centre of a great Latin (arch)bishopric, Lund has been in Sweden since the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Diocese of Lund is now one of thirteen in the Ch ...

, which was regarded as an insult to the

Archbishop of Uppsala The Archbishop of Uppsala (spelled Upsala until the early 20th century) has been the primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward under the Lutheran church. Historical ove ...

. Conflict was averted by Bo's death and a declaration of obedience to the Archbishop of Upsala, issued by the chapter of Vexiö. The most famous of the later bishops was Nicolaus Ragvaldi (1426–38), present at the Council of Basle, who became Archbishop of Uppsala in 1438. The last Roman Catholic bishop was Ingemar Petri (consecrated 1495), who, by judicious concessions, remained at Vexiö until his death in 1530. He took no part in episcopal consecrations during Gustav I Vasa's reign, when the Catholic hierarchy was replaced by the Lutheran state religion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaxjo Dioceses of the Church of Sweden Former Catholic dioceses in Sweden Växjö 12th-century establishments in Sweden Dioceses established in the 12th century