Diocese of Lund

Diocese of Lund Diocesis Lundensis Lunds stift
Arms of the diocese of Lund. It shows a gridiron in remembrance of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, the patron saint of Lund Cathedral.
Location
Deaneries	18 kontrakt
Coordinates	55°42′15″N 13°11′37″E
Statistics
Parishes	155
Congregations	189
Information
Denomination	Church of Sweden
Established	around 1050
Cathedral	Lund Cathedral
Current leadership
Bishop	Johan Tyrberg
Map
Website
www.svenskakyrkan.se/lundsstift

Archdiocese of Lund Archidioecesis Lundensis Lund ærkebispedømme
Lund Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Lund.
Location
Country	Denmark
Ecclesiastical province	Lund
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	1048 (As Diocese of Lund) 1103 (As Archdiocese of Lund)
Dissolved	1536
Cathedral	Lund Cathedral

The Diocese of Lund (Swedish: Lunds stift) is a former Catholic diocese that, at the time of the Danish Reformation, became a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Denmark. Since the signing of the treaty of Roskilde in 1658 it has been the southernmost diocese in the Lutheran Church of Sweden.

The territory of the present Lutheran diocese corresponds to the provinces of Blekinge and Skåne. There are 217 parishes within the diocese, the most significant number in any of the dioceses of the Church of Sweden. The present bishop of Lund, Johan Tyrberg, succeeded Antje Jackelén in 2014.

Catholic history

The Latin Diocese of Lund was formed in 1060, in what was then Danish territory, by separation from the Diocese of Roskilde, then both suffragans of the German Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen. The provinces of (north-western) Skåne (Scania) and Halland were under its jurisdiction.

The two other provinces of the Scanian Provinces (Lands), Blekinge and Bornholm, were, on the other hand, initially under the jurisdiction of the nearby Diocese of Dalby. At the earliest in 1067, the Dalby diocese was merged with the Lund diocese.

In 1104, the diocese became the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lund with its own ecclesiastical province, initially covering Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Norway got its own Archbishop of Nidaros in 1152, and Sweden its Archbishop of Uppsala in 1164. However, the Swedish archbishop remained for a long time nominally subordinate to the Archbishop of Lund.

The Diocese of Reval was created in 1240 for the Danish Duchy of Estonia, centred around Reval (modern Tallinn). For a short time, it remained subjugated to the Archdiocese of Lund even after Denmark sold its territories in Estonia to the Livonian Order in 1346 while other dioceses of Medieval Livonia were subjugated to the Archdiocese of Riga. The diocese was finally transferred to the Archdiocese of Riga in 1374.

In January 1553, the Catholic see was suppressed, never to be restored. Instead, Scandinavia came under the vast Germany-based Apostolic Vicariate of Nordic Missions, until 1793 the Apostolic Prefecture of Sweden was created from it, soon promoted to Apostolic Vicariate (from which Norway was detached on 1868.08.07 as Mission sui juris, to become the Oslo bishopric), on 1953.06.29 promoted as Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockholm, still covering the whole country.

Lund's former Catholic cathedral see became a Protestant church.

Lutheran diocese

At the time of the Reformation in 1536, the office of archbishop was abolished in Denmark and Lund was demoted to an ordinary diocese. Initially, the Lutheran bishops were styled superintendents.

In 1658 Lund came under Swedish rule. After the Treaty of Roskilde, the Scanian Lands/Provinces were ceded to Sweden (except Bornholm which was restored to Denmark in 1660) and they were never to return to Danish rule, except for a short interval during the Scanian War. After 1658, Lund became subordinate to the Archbishop of Uppsala.

See also

• List of bishops of Lund
• Lund Cathedral

Sources and external links

• Official website
• article Lunds stift from Nordisk Familjebok, in Swedish
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lund" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• GCatholic with incumbent bio links