The Diocese of Chełmno (; ) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, 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 Roman province, prov ...

Chełmno Land Chełmno land (, or Kulmerland) is a part of the historical region of Pomerelia, located in central-northern Poland. Chełmno land is named after the city of Chełmno. The largest city in the region is Toruń; another bigger city is Grudziąd ...

, founded in 1243 and disbanded in 1992."Diocese of Pelplin"
''

Catholic-Hierarchy.org ''Catholic-Hierarchy.org'' is an online database of bishops and dioceses of the Latin Church and the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches that are in full communion with Rome. The website, not officially sanctioned by the Church, is run as a private pro ...

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved February 29, 2016"Diocese of Pelplin"
''GCatholic.org''. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016

History

* It was founded in 1243 by the

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

William of Modena William of Modena ( – 31 March 1251), also known as ''William of Sabina'', ''Guglielmo de Chartreaux'', ''Guglielmo de Savoy'', ''Guillelmus'', was an Italian clergyman and papal diplomat.

in the

Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights The State of the Teutonic Order () was a theocratic state located along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. It was formed by the knights of the Teutonic Order during the early 13th century Northern Crusades in the region ...

, along with the three other bishoprics Ermland (Warmia), Samland (in

Sambia Sambia () or Samland () or Kaliningrad Peninsula (official name, , ''Kaliningradsky poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The peninsula is bounded by the Curonian Lagoon t ...

) and

Pomesania Pomesanians were a Prussian clan. They lived in Pomesania (; ; ), a historical region in modern northern Poland, located between the Nogat and Vistula Rivers to the west and the Elbląg River to the east. It is located around the modern towns ...

. Initially Culm was a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

to the

Archdiocese of Riga 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 associated ...

and had its seat in Chełmża (Culmsee), where the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

was domiciled till 1824. Lubawa-02

* From 1257 to 1782 the episcopal seat was the castle in Lubawa. * In 1454, the region was reincorporated by King

Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (Casimir Andrew Jagiellon; ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. He was one of the most active Polish-Lithuanian rulers; under ...

to the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

. * In 1466, the region was confirmed as part of Poland, and the diocese was agreed to pass to the

Archdiocese of Gniezno The Archdiocese of Gniezno (, ) is the oldest Latin Catholic archdiocese in Poland, located in the city of Gniezno.

. * After 1525 Chełmno incorporated southern parts of the Pomesanian diocesan area (with

Łasin Łasin () is a town in Grudziądz County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 3,271 inhabitants (2004). It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Łasin. It lies approximately east of Grudziądz and ...

and Nowe Miasto), which happened to be in the

Chełmno Voivodeship The Chełmno Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland since 1454/1466 until the Partitions of Poland in 1772/1793. Its capital was at Chełmno. Together wi ...

. Whereas western Pomesanian diocesan area in the

Malbork Voivodeship The Malbork Voivodeship (), after Partitions of Poland also referred to as the Malbork Land (Polish: ''Ziemia malborska''), was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland from 1454/1466 until the Partitions ...

was administered by Chełmno, but officially maintaining its naming. * After Riga's dissolution in 1566 the bishops of Chełmno attended the councils of the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

of the metropolitan of Gniezno. This practice was recognised by the Holy See by the Bull ''De salute animarum'' in 1821, when Chełmno became de jure a suffragan of the

Archdiocese of Gniezno The Archdiocese of Gniezno (, ) is the oldest Latin Catholic archdiocese in Poland, located in the city of Gniezno.

. Chełmno diocese was enlarged on that occasion ( Górzno,

Krajna Krajna is a forested historical region in the north of Greater Poland in Poland, situated in the border area between the Greater Poland, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships. The region consists of parts of Złotów, Piła, Sęp� ...

and

Działdowo Działdowo (; , ) is a town in northern Poland with 20,935 inhabitants as of December 2021, the capital of Działdowo County. As part of Masuria, it is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Działdowo belonged previously to Cie ...

). * Annexation of the diocesan area in the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

in 1772 and

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of partitions of Poland, three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition (politics), partition occurred i ...

in 1793 by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. * From 1782 to 1824 the episcopal seat was in Chełmża. Pelplin - Katedra widok 001GP

* In 1824, episcopal seat moved to

Pelplin Pelplin () is a town in northern Poland, in the Tczew County, Pomeranian Voivodship. Population: 8,320 (2009). Pelplin is located in the ethnocultural region of Kociewie in Pomerania. It is home to one of the finest collections of medieval art ...

. * In 1871, the diocesan area became part of Germany. * Restoration of independent Poland after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

; reintegration of Chełmno with Poland in 1920. * Pope

Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

decided to separate 18 parishes in the territory the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

west of the Vistula from the diocese and to establish an ''Apostolic Administrator of the Free City of Danzig'' on 24 April 1922, which was directly subordinated to the Pope. * On 1 May 1923 the Holy See disentangled from the Diocese of Chełmno the deaneries in Bütow (Bytów), Lauenburg in Pomerania (Lębork) as well as those included in the Posen-West Prussia Border March, and transferred them to the new

Apostolic Administration of Tütz Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...

, later transformed into the

Prelature of Schneidemühl A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

(

Piła Piła (; ) is a city in northwestern Poland and the capital of Piła County, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Its population was 71,846, making it the city in the voivodeship after Poznań and Kalisz and the largest city in the north ...

).Cf. . * In 1925 a concordat between Poland and the Holy See was signed and the Apostolic Administrator was now supposed to be subordinated to the

Nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

of Warsaw, which caused protests among the local populace. Thus, the Pope established the ''sui iuris'' Diocese of Danzig on 30 December 1925 and appointed

Edward O'Rourke Edward O'Rourke, full name Eduard Alexander Ladislaus Graf O'Rourke (; ; 26 October 1876 – 27 June 1943) was a Russian-born Roman Catholic priest, bishop of Riga and the first head of the bishopric of the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk). Ea ...

as the first Bishop on 2 January 1926. The deanery of Pomesania in that eastern part of West Prussia which remained with Germany after the 1920 East and West Prussian plebiscites was transferred to the

Diocese of Warmia The Archdiocese of Warmia (, ) is a Latin Church Metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. The archbishop has his Cathedral archiepiscopal see: Bazylika Archikatedralna Wniebowzięcia NMP i św. ...

in 1925. * As part of the reorganisation of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of Poland in 1972, also accounting for changes of political border in 1945, the diocese of Gdansk was enlarged on the expenses of Chelmno diocese, whereas the latter gained parishes previously part of the Berlin diocese and the

(

) * As part of the reorganisation of the Catholic Church in the

Third Polish Republic Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

, the extant Diocese of Chełmno was split in 1992 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

into the Diocese of Pelplin and the Diocese of Toruń

List of Bishops of Kulm/Chełmno

* 1245–1263: Heidenreich Ordo fratrum Praedicatorum,

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

(O.P.) * 1264–1274:

Friedrich von Hausen Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

Ordo Teutonicus,

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

(O.T.) * 1275–1291: Werner OT * 1291/92–1301: Heinrich Schenk OT * 1303–1311: Herman OT * 1311–1316/19: Eberhard OT * 1319–1323: Mikołaj Afri OP * 1323–1349: Otto OT * 1349–1359: Jacob OT * 1359–1363: Johann Schadland OP * 1363–1381/85: Wikbold Dobilstein OT * 1385–1390: Reinhard von Sayn * 1390: Martin von Lynow OT * 1390–1398: Nikolaus Schippenbeil OT * 1398–1402: Jan Kropidło * 1402–1416: Arnold Stapil OT * 1416–1457: Johann Marienau * 1457–1479: Wincenty Kiełbasa * 1480–1495: Stefan of Nibork * 1496–1507: Mikołaj Chrapicki * 1508–1530: Jan Konopacki * 1530–1538: Johannes Dantiscus * 1538–1549: Tiedemann Giese * 1549–1551:

Stanislaus Hosius Stanislaus Hosius (; 5 May 1504 – 5 August 1579) was a Polish Roman Catholic cardinal. From 1551 he was the Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Warmia in Royal Prussia, and from 1558, he served as the papal legate to the Holy Roman Emperor's I ...

* 1551–1562: Jan Lubodzieski * 1562–1571: Stanisław Żelisławski SOC * 1574–1595: Piotr Kostka * 1595–1600:

Piotr Tylicki Piotr Tylicki (1543–1616) was a Polish nobleman who was Bishop of Kraków (1607-1616). He was also Bishop of Chełmno, Warmia, and Włocławek, and Vice-Chancellor of the Crown of Poland (1598-1603). Tylicki was born in Kowal to a family tha ...

* 1600–1610: Wawrzyniec Gembicki"Archbishop Wawrzyniec Gembicki"
''

''. David M. Cheney. Retrieved July 2, 2016 * 1611–1613: Maciej Konopacki * 1614–1624: Jan Kuczborski * 1624–1635:

Jakub Zadzik Jakub Zadzik (1582 – 17 March 1642) was a Polish Great Crown Secretary from 1613 to 1627, bishop of Chełmno from 1624, Crown Deputy Chancellor from 1627, Great Crown Chancellor from 1628 to 1635, bishop of Kraków from 1635, diplomat, szlach ...

* 1635–1639: Jan Lipski * 1639–1646: Kasper Działyński * 1646–1652: Andrzej Leszczyński * 1653–1655: Jan Gembicki * 1658–1661: Adam Koss * 1662–1674: Andrzej Olszowski * 1676–1681:

Jan Małachowski Jan Małachowski (1623-1699) was Bishop of Chełmno (1676-1681), Bishop of Kraków (1681-1699), and Vice-Chancellor to the Crown. Life Małachowski spent his early years serving in the military under Stanisław Rewera Potocki. He was married ...

* 1681–1693: * 1693–1694: * 1699–1712:

Teodor Andrzej Potocki Teodor Andrzej Potocki (13 February 1664 – 12 December 1738) was a Polish nobleman (szlachcic), Primate of Poland, interrex in 1733. Teodor was Rector of Przemyśl and canon of Kraków since 1687, Bishop of Chełmno since 1699 and Bishop ...

* 1719–1721: * 1723–1730: * 1731–1733: SOC * 1736–1739:

Adam Stanisław Grabowski Adam Stanisław Grabowski (; 3 September 1698, Wielki Buczek, near Debrzno – 15 December 1766, Lidzbark Warmiński), of the ''Zbiświcz'' coat-of-arms, was Bishop of Chełmno 1736–39, Bishop of Kujawy 1739–41, Prince-Bishop of Warmia 1 ...

* 1739–1746:

Andrzej Stanisław Załuski Andrzej Stanisław Kostka Załuski (2 December 1695 – 16 December 1758) was a priest (bishop) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In his religious career he held the posts of abbot and later Bishop of Płock (from 1723), bishop of Ł ...

* 1747–1758: SOC * 1759–1785: * 1785–1795: Karl von Hohenzollern-Hechingen * 1795–1814: Abp Marian Przykucki

* 1824–1832: Ignacy Stanisław Matthy * 1834–1856: Anastazy Sedlag * 1857–1886: Johannes von der Marwitz * 1886–1898: Leon Redner * 1899–1926: Augustin Rosentreter * 1926–1944: Stanisław Wojciech Okoniewski * 1946–1972: Kazimierz Józef Kowalski * 1973–1980: Bernard Czapliński * 1981–1992: Marian Przykucki

Notes and references

External links

GCatholic.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chelmno, Roman Catholic Diocese Roman Catholic Diocese of Chełmno Roman Catholic dioceses established in the 13th century Establishments in the State of the Teutonic Order Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Poland Religious organizations established in the 1240s Roman Catholic Diocese of Chełmno Religious organizations disestablished in 1992 Suppressed Roman Catholic dioceses