The Diocese of

Växjö Växjö ( ) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 70,489 inhabitants (2019) out of a municipal population of 95,995 (2021). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of Kronoberg County ...

( sv, Växjö stift) is one of the 13 dioceses or regional units of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...

. It was also a former

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

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 ...

Lutheran diocese

Diocese of Växjö is situated in southern Sweden and includes most of the county of

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a 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 of Jönköping Municipa ...

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

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

in the east, the county of

Kronoberg Kronoberg County (; sv, Kronobergs län) is a county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. Kronoberg is one of three counties in the province of Småland. It borders the counties of Skåne, Halland, Jönköping, Kalmar, and Blekinge. Its capital is t ...

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, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Brömseb ...

in the west. The diocese consists of 249 parishes, and has the highest church attendance in Sweden.The Making of Regions of Germany and Sweden
The city of

is the site of the episcopal see of Diocese of Växjö. In the twelfth century, the construction of

Växjö Cathedral Växjö Cathedral ( sv, Växjö domkyrka) is a cathedral in Växjö, Sweden. It is the seat of the Bishop of Växjö within the Church of Sweden. According to legend, the cathedral was founded by Saint Sigfrid of Sweden. The first stone church ...

was begun and hence Växjö grew to become 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.

Former Catholic diocese

The ancient episcopal see of

comprised the regions Värend and Njudung in Småland. Its patron saint was Saint Sigfrid, who in 1158 was canonized by

Adrian IV Pope Adrian IV ( la, Adrianus IV; born Nicholas Breakspear (or Brekespear); 1 September 1159, also Hadrian IV), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4 December 1154 to his death in 1159. He is the only Englishman ...

:s:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ancient See of Vexiö and his shrine was, until the Protestant

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, the glory of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and St. Sigfrid at Vexiö. He had no immediate successors and in 1126 King Sigurd Jorsalafarer of Norway led a crusade to Småland to Christianize its inhabitants. Little is known about the origin of the diocese. It may have been Danish, or it may have broken loose from the diocese of

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

between 1164 and 1170. The second bishop was Stenar, who is mentioned in two letters dating from 1183. In 1191 he quarreled with the Bishop of Linköping concerning the frontiers of their respective dioceses. Stenar was succeeded in 1193 by John Ehrengisleson. In 1205 the biography of St. 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 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 Church of Sweden. Catho ...

, which was regarded as an insult to the Archbishop of Upsala. 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 Nicolaus Ragvaldi (Latinized form of Swedish Nils Ragvaldsson) (born in the early 1380s and died on 17 February 1448) was bishop of Växjö and from 1438–1448 archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden. He is known as an early representative of the Goth ...

(1426–38), present at the Council of Basle, and in 1438 translated to Upsala. 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 Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksföre ...

's reign, when the Catholic hierarchy was replaced by the Lutheran state religion. The chapter of Vexiö consisted of

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, archdeacon, subdean and eleven

prebendaries A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the ...

. There was also a schoolmaster. The cathedral was burnt down in 1740 and rebuilt in 1755. There were apparently no religious houses in the diocese.

References

General sources

newadvent.org

External links

* {{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