Overview of the History of the Diocese of Eichstätt

The beginnings of the diocese of Eichstätt, which occurred as part of the Anglo-Saxon mission on the European continent, become tangible from about the mid-8th century onwards. The exact founding year of the diocese is unknown as no official founding document has been found. The first bishop of Eichstätt was the Anglo-Saxon Willibald, a relative of Saint Boniface. Boniface had called Willibald, who had been living in the Italian monastery of Monte Cassino as a monk following a pilgrimage of several years, to the Germanic mission. In 740 he gave him the “regio Eihstat” to look after which was located at the northwestern edge of the Duchy of Bavaria and had been donated to church purposes by a Bavarian nobleman named Suidger. Willibald was ordained a priest in the same year of 740 by Boniface in the Marian church that already existed in Eichstätt. In the year after he received episcopal ordination in Sülzenbrücken near Erfurt, possibly as the bishop of Erfurt. Nonetheless at an unknown point in time he returned to Eichstätt as a bishop, which then became the nucleus of the diocese of Eichstätt through the monastery that Willibald founded there.

[Translate to English:] Gundekarianum — A depiction of the saints of the Eichstätt diocese, Willibald, Wunibald, and Walburga (top left, top right, and bottom left) – together with Saint Boniface, Saint Vitus, and Saint Gunthildis (top center, bottom center, and bottom right)- from Eichstätt’s “Pontifikales Gundekarianum”, a precious book named after its originator bishop Gundekar II (1057–1075).

Willibald was mostly supported by his brother Wunibald and his sister Walburga in the establishment of the diocese. Wunibald built another monastery in 752 in Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm, about 35 km northwest of Eichstätt, which Walburga took over after his death. Herrieden and Monheim also became early locations of influential monasteries. Examples of monasteries established in the late Middle Ages are Auhausen, Heilsbronn, Kastl, Plankstetten, Rebdorf, and Wülzburg as well as Bergen, Gnadenberg, Seligenporten and St. Walburg in Eichstätt.

The location of the diocese across the Alemannic, Frankish, and Bavarian territories resulted in the church of Eichstätt playing a not insignificant role in the history of the Empire during the Middle Ages. The heyday of this development came under bishop Gebhard I (1042-1057) who was also Pope Victor II from 1055 till 1057. Gebhard’s successor to the Eichstätt episcopal see, bishop Gundekar II (1057-1075), discontinued previous traditions and mainly focused on internal establishment and extension of the diocese, which became evident externally in the numerous church consecrations he conducted.

[Translate to English:] Willibaldsburg — The Willibaldsburg near Eichstätt: Residence and office of Eichstätt’s prince-bishops from the 14th to the 18th century.

Only late, around 1300, did the bishops of Eichstätt achieve the decisive step on the path to the establishment of a secular territory amidst the general battle for the establishment of sovereign territories. When the once powerful line of the Dukes of Hirschberg became extinct in 1305 a large part of the so-called Hirschberg Inheritance transferred into the possession of Eichstätt’s bishops. From then on they held a mostly unified secular territory along the middle course of the river Altmühl, which included the bishop’s town itself. This was called the Lower Bishopric. The Upper Bishopric consisted of only partially connected exclaves of varying sizes which were made up of the localities of Wahrberg-Herrieden, Arberg-Ornbau, Wernfels-Spalt, Abenberg and Sandsee-Pleinfeld by the end of the Holy Roman Empire. Compared to the territory of the diocese of Eichstätt the territory of the prince-bishopric of Eichstätt was significantly smaller, encompassing only a third of the diocese’s territory.

During the Reformation it was mostly the territory of the prince-bishopric where the new teachings found no following, whereas in nearly all other areas of the diocese Catholic church life came to a standstill in two main phases during the 16^th century due to the circumstances of secular sovereignty at the time. The advent of the Reformation also resulted in the closure of the majority of the monasteries within the diocese, many of which, such as Heidenheim, had traditions reaching far back into the Middle Ages.

[Translate to English:] Maria Brünnlein — The pilgrimage church "Maria Brünnlein zum Trost“ near Wemding: The most significant place of Marian pilgrimage in the diocese of Eichstätt was constructed in 1748, replacing a chapel, and consecrated in 1782. The interior boasts rich decoration in Rococo style, including frescos by Johann Baptist Zimmermann.

During the first decades of the 17^thcentury approximately one third of the diocese's territory that had been lost due to the Reformation returned to Catholic sovereignty. It was mostly Capuchins and Jesuits who were entrusted with the re-establishment and renewal of ecclesiastical life in the regained as well as remaining territories. The latter also became responsible for priest education in Eichstätt in 1614. After the Thirty Years' War piety blossomed in the Baroque era. This was also noticable in the diocese of Eichstätt, for example through a number of newly constructed ecclesiastical buildings and widespread Baroque influence on the church. This development came to an end at the start of the 19^th century due to secularization. With the final annexation of the former prince-bishopric by Bavaria the King of Bavaria gained sovereignty over the entire territory of the diocese of Eichstätt in 1806. The new Bavarian state introduced equality of Christian confessions which made it easier for Catholics to settle in Protestant regions and vice-versa. From about the center of the 19^th century this resulted in the establishment of some isolated, new Catholic pastoral districts and parishes in the diaspora area encompassing approximately half the area of the diocese. Examples are Schwabach, Altdorf, Weißenburg and Gunzenhausen. Apart from this the traditional confessional ratios remained mostly unchanged until 1945.

The glass windows in the parish church of Gunzenhausen, which was consecrated in 1960, are by artist Alpheda Puluj-Hohenthal, from Litzldorf near Rosenheim. The topic of the image is the Resurrection of Christ.

Only the settlement of many displaced persons after World War II suddenly changed this picture. In 1948 there were approx. 340,000 Catholics in the diocese, over a third more than in 1940. The increase in population resulted in the establishment of a number of new parishes, vicariates and quasi-parishes and in conjunction with this the construction of numerous new churches especially in the Central Franconian diaspora areas and the two metropolitan regions of Ingolstadt and Nuremberg. At that time the diocese of Eichstätt experienced a level of ecclesiastical construction activity that hadn't been seen since the Baroque era and a rate of expansion of its parish network which had been unthinkable since the establishment and solidification of the confessional ratios in the early modern period. This wave of new church construction and changes in the parochial organisation only slowed down in the 1980s.

Eichstätt 2006 - Leo Hintermayr, Episcopal Chancery Eichstätt

Pictures (Leo Hintermayr):
Willibald, Boniface and Wunibald, from book "Pontifikale Gundekarianum" (around 1072)
Castle "Willibaldsburg" in Eichstätt
Pilgrimage church "Maria Brünnlein" in Wemding
Glass window (1977/78) of the city parish church "Mariä Unbefleckte Empfängnis" in Gunzenhausen

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Overview of the History of the Diocese of Eichstätt

Willibaldswoche

Buchtipps