Archdiocese of Warmia Archidioecesis Varmiensis Archidiecezja warmińska | |
|---|---|
 Frombork Cathedral, withVistula Lagoon in background. | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Location | |
| Country | Poland |
| Ecclesiastical province | Province of Warmia |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 12,000 km2 (4,600 sq mi) |
Population
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| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Rite | Latin Rite |
| Established | 13th Century (As Diocese of Warmia) 25 March 1992 (As Archdiocese of Warmia) |
| Cathedral | Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary inFrombork |
| Co-cathedral | Basilica of Saint James the Apostle inOlsztyn |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Józef Górzyński, Archbishop of Warmia |
| Auxiliary Bishops | Janusz Ostrowski |
| Bishops emeritus | Julian Andrzej Wojtkowski, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Warmia |
| Map | |
 | |
| Website | |
| archidiecezjawarminska.pl | |
TheArchdiocese of Warmia (Polish:Archidiecezja warmińska,German:Erzdiözese Ermland) is aLatin Church Metropolitanarchdiocese of theCatholic Church in theWarmian-Masurian Voivodeship,Poland.
The archbishop has hisCathedral archiepiscopal see: Bazylika Archikatedralna Wniebowzięcia NMP i św. Andrzeja Apostoła, in the town ofFrombork, and aCo-Cathedral Basilica of St. James inOlsztyn. Both areminor basilicas, and the archdiocese has six more : Bazylika Najświętszego Zbawiciela i Wszystkich Świętych, inDobre Miasto; Bazylika Narodzenia NMP, inGietrzwałd; Bazylika Nawiedzenia NMP, inMatki Jedności; Bazylika Sanktuarium Matki Pokoju, inStoczek Klasztorny; Bazylika św. Jerzego, inKętrzyn and Bazylika św. Katarzyny, inBraniewo.
TheArchcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Andrew in Frombork is listed as aHistoric Monument of Poland.[1]
The current archbishop is Józef Górzyński, who was appointed bythe Pope in 2016.
Founded as adiocese in the region ofWarmia on 29 July 1243, it was one of the four bishoprics of theState of the Teutonic Order inPrussia. The first bishop Heinrich von Strateich never actually took his office. His successorAnselm of Meissen, officiating between 1250 and 1274, became the first bishop active in Warmia. In 1253, afterAlbert Suerbeer finally achieved his long disputedinvestiture with the newly elevatedArchbishopric of Riga, Warmia - like a number of other Baltic dioceses - became Riga'ssuffragan. Warmia's first bishops were appointed by Polish andTeutonic Knights' officials and were mostlyGermans, however, unlike the other Prussian bishoprics (Culm (Chełmno),Pomesania, andSamland (Sambia)), Warmia's diocesanchapter, established in 1260, maintained independence. Its members were not simultaneously members of theTeutonic Order, as was the case in the other Prussian chapters since the 1280s. Thus the chapter could repel influencing by outside powers.
In 1356 theGolden Bull of EmperorCharles IV designated the bishop as Prince-Bishop of Warmia, a rank not awarded to the other Prussian bishops with their dependent chapters. By the double function ofprince-bishops they officiated as spiritual leader in the diocese and as secular prince in thePrince-Bishopric of Warmia, a semi-independent state comprising about a third of the actual diocesan territory, first as part of Teutonic Prussia.
In February 1440 the nobility of Warmia and the town ofBraniewo co-founded thePrussian Confederation, which opposed Teutonic rule, and most towns of Warmia joined the organization in May 1440.[2] In February 1454, the organization asked Polish KingCasimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region to theKingdom of Poland, to which the king agreed and signed the act of incorporation inKraków on 6 March 1454,[3] and theThirteen Years' War (1454–1466) broke out. During the war Warmia was partly recaptured by the Teutonic Knights, however, in 1464 Bishop Paweł Legendorf vel Mgowski sided with Poland and the Prince-Bishopric came again under the overlordship of the Polish King.[4] In thepeace treaty of 1466 the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the prince-bishopric, and recognized it as part of Poland.[5] It administratively remained a prince-bishopric with several privileges, part of the larger provinces ofRoyal Prussia andGreater Poland Province. When KingCasimir IV attempted to reduce the prince-episcopal autonomy this caused theWar of the Priests.
Prince-BishopLucas Watzenrode, officiating between 1489 and 1512, aimed atWarmia's exemption from Riga in order to establish a Warmianmetropolis, comprising the dioceses within Teutonic Prussia, part of Poland as afief since 1466,[6] as suffragans. The plans failed, but Watzenrode reclaimed the exemption after ca. 1492. In theSecond Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (December 7, 1512) Warmia conceded to KingAlexander Jagiellon a limited right to propose four candidates to the chapter for the election, who however had to be residents of the province ofRoyal Prussia.
Under Watzenrode's successors changing suffraganship from Riga toGniezno did not materialise. The diocesede jure remained a suffragan of Riga until its dissolution in 1566. Thereafter Warmia was anexempt diocese.
In 1569, Warmia was united more directly with the Kingdom of Poland within thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this period the chapter mostly elected bishops of Polish nationality. The faithful in the northern part of the diocese were by large majorityethnic Germans, while in the south the large majority were ethnicPoles. Following KingSigismund III's Prussian regency contract (1605) withJoachim Frederick of Brandenburg, and his Prussian enfeoffment contract (1611) withJohn Sigismund of Brandenburg these two rulers guaranteed free practice of Catholic religion in all of prevailingly LutheranDucal Prussia, a vassal duchy of Poland. In practice, however, the ducal government obstructed Catholic exercise in many ways.
But based on these contracts the prince-bishops gradually extended their de facto competence beyond the territory of their proper prince-bishopric of secular rule. As a result, the see regained jurisdiction in the two thirds of its diocesan territory outside its secular prince-bishopric and beyond into the diocesan areas of the dissolved former neighbour dioceses such as Sambia and Pomesania, and Warmia became the diocese competent for all of Ducal Prussia. This development was recognised by the Holy See in 1617 by de jure extending Warmia's jurisdiction over Sambia's former diocesan territory. After theFirst Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia was annexed by theKingdom of Prussia, forming part of its newly formed province ofEast Prussia in the following year.
By the bullDe salute animum (July 16, 1820) the Catholic Church in Prussia was reorganised. However, the diocesan territory was not adapted to the new provincial borders established in 1815. Since most inhabitants of East Prussia had become Lutherans, the diocesan territories of the former bishoprics of Pomesania (partially) and Samland with its few remaining Catholics were part of the Diocese of Ermland (Warmia), thus territorially comprising all of the Prussianprovince of East Prussia except the southwestern corner (main part of Pomesania diocese aroundMarienwerder (Kwidzyn), which had become theDeanery of Pomesania within Culm (Chełmno) diocese). In 1901, the total population in the area of the diocese was about 2,000,000, among them 327,567 Catholics.
On 28 October 1925 the Holy See - by the BullVixdum Poloniae unitas - seceded the Pomesania deanery from theDiocese of Chełmno and assigned it to Ermland,[7] whileMemelland was dissected from the diocese, so that it territorially comprised all the Prussianprovince of East Prussia in its altered borders of 1922. In 1930 the diocesan exemption ended and Ermland, then led by BishopMaximilian Kaller, became part of theEastern German Ecclesiastical Province under the newly elevatedArchdiocese of Breslau (Wrocław).
Following the defeat of Germany inWorld War II, Warmia became again part of Poland, although with aSoviet-installedcommunist regime, which stayed in power until theFall of Communism in the 1980s. Bishop Kaller resigned from jurisdiction in the Polish-held diocesan area, retaining the title bishop, and was expelled by communist authorities in mid-August 1945.Pope Pius XII then appointed him the "Bishop of theExpellees". The diocese was then claimed by the Polish Catholic Church, supported by the communist state.August Hlond had appointed Teodor Bensch asApostolic Administrator superseding the still existingcapitular canons, who otherwise could have elected a new bishop candidate. TheHoly See, however, regarded the post-war territorial changes not yet contractually confirmed. So the see with its traditional cathedral inFrombork remained vacant after Kaller's death.
In 1972 - in response to West Germany's change inOstpolitik with theTreaty of Warsaw - the Holy See re-established a new Polish Diocese appointingJózef Drzazga, who was then a suffragan to theArchdiocese of Warsaw. Drzazga relocated the actual see toOlsztyn.
On 25 March 1992 Warmia was elevated to ametropolitanarchdiocese and given two new suffragans, theDiocese of Ełk and theDiocese of Elbląg.[8] The Diocese of Ełk comprised territory taken from the dioceses of Warmia andŁomża. The Diocese of Elbląg comprised territory taken from Warmia and the former dioceses of Chełmno (nowDiocese of Pelplin) and Gdańsk (nowArchdiocese of Gdańsk).
Only in 1991 it was possible to celebrate Roman Catholic services in German again. At first, they were held in the Church of Mary the Virgin and Mother of God in Allenstein-Jomendorf.[9]
Today the see comprises an area of 12,000 km2 with 694,000 Catholics, 33deans, 260 church districts, 422 diocesepriests, 124 order priests, and 244 order nuns.
The following is a list of the bishops and archbishops since theepiscopal see was re-established in 1972. For earlier bishops and prince-bishops, seeList of bishops of Warmia.
| Period of office | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 to 1978 | Józef Drzazga | Formerly anAuxiliary Bishop of Warmia (1967–1972); appointedDiocesan Bishop of Warmia 28 June 1972; died in office 12 September 1978 |
| 1979 to 1981 | Józef Glemp | Appointed Diocesan Bishop of Warmia 4 March 1979 and ordained bishop 21 April 1979; appointed to thearchdiocese of Gniezno 7 July 1981 |
| 1982 to 1988 | Jan Władysław Obłąk | Formerly an Auxiliary Bishop of Warmia (1967–1982); appointed Diocesan Bishop of Warmia 13 April 1982; retired in 1988; died 16 December 1988 |
| 1988 to1992 | Edmund Michał Piszcz | FormerlyApostolic Administrator of Warmia (1985–1988); appointed Diocesan Bishop of Warmia 22 October 1988; appointed Archbishop of Warmia 25 March 1992 |
| Period of office | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 to 2006 | Edmund Michał Piszcz | Hitherto Bishop of Warmia; appointed Archbishop of Warmia 25 March 1992; retired 30 May 2006 |
| 2006 to 2016 | Wojciech Ziemba | FormerlyArchbishop of Białystok (2000–2006); appointed Archbishop of Warmia 30 May 2006 and installed 11 June 2006; retired 15 October 2016; died 21 April 2021 |
| since 2016 | Józef Górzyński | Formerly an Auxiliary Bishop of Warsaw (2013–2015); coadjutor Archbishop of Warmia (2015-2016); succeeded Archbishop of Warmia and installed 15 October 2016 |
| Province of Białystok | |
|---|---|
| Province of Częstochowa | |
| Province of Gdańsk | |
| Province of Gniezno | |
| Province of Katowice | |
| Province of Kraków | |
| Province of Łódź | |
| Province of Lublin | |
| Province of Poznań | |
| Province of Przemyśl | |
| Province of Szczecin-Kamień | |
| Province of Warmia | |
| Province of Warszawa | |
| Province of Wrocław | |
| Sui iuris jurisdictions |
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| Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church | |
| See also | |
53°46′34″N20°28′39″E / 53.7761°N 20.4775°E /53.7761; 20.4775
| International | |
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| National | |
