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Diocese of Antwerp Dioecesis Antverpiensis Bisdom Antwerpen(Dutch) Diocèse d'Anvers(French) Bistum von Antwerpen(German) | |
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 Coat of arms | |
| Location | |
| Country | Belgium |
| Ecclesiastical province | Mechelen-Brussels |
| Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels |
| Coordinates | 51°13′06″N4°24′10″E / 51.218214°N 4.402657°E /51.218214; 4.402657 |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 2,570 km2 (990 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2020) 1,586,590 1,215,000 (76.6%) |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | 8 December 1961 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of Our Lady inAntwerp |
| Patron saint | Ignatius of Loyola |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Johan Bonny |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Luc Terlinden |
| Bishops emeritus | Paul Van den Berghe |
| Map | |
 The territorial extent of the diocese of Antwerp. Note that it is smaller than theProvince of Antwerp | |
TheDiocese of Antwerp (Latin:Dioecesis Antverpiensis) is aLatin Church ecclesiastical territory ordiocese of theCatholic Church in Belgium. The diocese was restored in 1961.[1] It is asuffragan in theecclesiastical province of themetropolitanArchdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. Itscathedra is found within theCathedral of Our Lady.
In the Middle Ages,Antwerp was within theDiocese of Cambrai. In 1559, at the instance ofPhilip II of Spain, a new arrangement of the episcopal sees of the Low countries was made byPope Paul IV. Three archiepiscopal and fourteen episcopal sees were created, and all external jurisdiction, however ancient, abolished. Antwerp became one of the six suffragans ofMechlin, and remained such until the end of the eighteenth century.
This step did not meet with the goodwill of the merchants of the city, who feared the introduction of theInquisition and the costliness of an episcopal establishment, and urged the transfer of the new see toLeuven, where it would be less offensive to the non-Catholic elements of their city. Catholic monastic interests were active, being now called on by the Pope to provide for the support of the new see. Finally, the famous theologianFranciscus Sonnius (fromSon inBrabant) was transferred from thediocese of Bois-le-Duc to Antwerp in 1569 as first bishop of the new see, and governed it until his death in 1576.
Ten years of religious and political conflict elapsed before another bishop could be appointed in the person ofLaevinus Torrentius (Lieven van der Beken or Liévin van der Beken), a Leuven theologian, graceful humanist, and diplomat. He died in 1595. The scholarlyJoannes Miraeus (or Le Mire) was Bishop of Antwerp from 1604 to 1611, and was succeeded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a series of fifteen bishops, the last of whom wasCornelius Franciscus Nelis, librarian of theUniversity of Leuven and Bishop of Antwerp from 1785 to his death in 1798.
In accordance with theConcordat of 1801,Pope Pius VII suppressed the see on 29 November 1801, by the BullQui Christi Domini vices, its former Belgian territory transferred to the Archdiocese of Mechlin, the Dutch portion to theDiocese of Breda.[2] The diocese was restored in 1961 byPope John XXIII. It comprises the territory of the Belgianprovince of Antwerp, minus eightmunicipalities in the south which belong toMechelen-Brussels includingBonheiden,Duffel,Mechelen andSint-Katelijne-Waver, and the municipality ofZwijndrecht, which belongs to theDiocese of Ghent.
The abbeys and convents of Antwerp were long very famous centres of its religious life. In the twelfth century the Canons Regular of St. Norbert (Premonstratensians) founded theabbey of St. Michael, that would become one of the principal abbeys of the Low Countries, sheltered many royal guests, and eventually excited greed and persecution by reason of its wealth. The Cathedral of Antwerp was originally a small Premonstratensian shrine known familiarly as "Our Lady of the Stump." Many other religious orders found a shelter in Antwerp,Dominicans,Franciscans (1446),Carmelites (1494),Carthusians (1632), and female branches of the same. TheCistercians had two great abbeys, St. Sauveur, founded in 1451 by the devout merchant Peter Pot, andSt. Bernard, about six miles from Antwerp, founded in 1233.[3]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Antwerp".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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