Bishop of Odense

Diocese of Odense Dioecesis Othoniensis Odense Stift
St. Canute's Cathedral, seat of the bishop of Odense.
Location
Country	Denmark
Ecclesiastical province	Lund
Metropolitan	Archdiocese of Lund
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	988
Dissolved	1536
Cathedral	St. Canute's Cathedral in Odense

The former Roman Catholic bishopric of Odense was a bishopric on the Danish islands that included the islands of Funen (where Odense city, its episcopal see, is located), Langeland, Tåsinge, Lolland, Falster, Als and Ærø. The diocese was disputed as suffragan between the archdioceses of Hamburg-Bremen and Canterbury. Like the rest of present Denmark, in 1104 it became suffragan of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lund (the primate of all Scandinavia), the only diocese of the province presently outside Denmark: in Scania, now the adjoining south of Sweden, then Danish territory.

It was founded before 988 from Schleswig, and the first church built at Odense was dedicated to St. Mary. Othinkar Hvide the Elder, a missionary bishop in Sweden, is said to have preached Christianity on Funen, but the first Bishop of Odense whose name is known with certainty is Reginbert (Reginar), an Englishman consecrated by Archbishop Alnoth of Canterbury in 1020 or 1022 and sent by King Canute the Great to Denmark. Reginbert was succeeded by Eilbert, a clerk of Bremen (about 1043-72). After his death the diocese was vacant and subject to the Bishop of Roskilde, until 1086, at the earliest, when the English Benedictine monk Hubald was appointed its bishop. On 10 July 1086, King/Saint Canute was murdered in the Church of Sankt Albani (St. Alban's) in Odense. The fame of his miracles and the bad harvests which followed upon his murder led to his canonization and to the translation on 19 April 1101 of his relics by Bishop Hubald to the new Church of Our Lady and St. Alban. At King Eric Ejegod's request King William II of England induced the Abbot of Evesham, Worcestershire, to send over twelve of his monks to Odense in 1100 who served the newly erected Cathedral of St. Canute, and later they and their successors formed the chapter. The Church of St. Canute, which was at first of wood, and connected with the great Benedictine monastery of the same name, was burnt down more than once, and the present fine building was not begun until the time of Bishop Gisico (1287?-1300?). It is built of brick in pure Gothic style, and is considered one of the largest and finest ecclesiastical edifices in Denmark. Its construction was continued under his successor, bishop Peter Pagh (1304–39), who apparently assisted, even if he did not found, the school at Odense. The next bishop, Nicholas Jensen (1340–62), made the school a free one in 1349; before this the pupils paid half the cost of their education. Bishop Mogens Krasse (1460–74) seems to have finished the cathedral. His successor, Charles Rønnow (1474–1501), who had been provost of the Church of Our Lady, was hostile to the Benedictine monks at St. Canute's, and in 1474 drove them from the cathedral, replacing them with regular canons. It was not till 1489 that the monks were brought back, at the command of Innocent VIII.