Day 36: Diocese of Fulda
OK, I was actually looking to see if there was a diocese of Tulsa (there is), but my inability to type led me to this German diocese, which traces its roots to an 8th century monastery that Pope Zachary put under direct papal control. St. Boniface asked to be buried at Fulda, which helped it gain standing among other, larger northern European diocese. At some point the diocese was also run as a principality, a status that lasted until 1802. The diocese also enjoyed expanded power over other monasteries and was for a time an important center of science in the Holy Roman Empire.
Things got a little tougher in the 19th century, as the diocese was run by an administrator rather than a bishop for a time, and during the Kulturkampf the bishop's seat was vacant for eight years. Then in the aftermath of World War II, parts of Fulda were in East Germany, leading to some practical issues of governance. In 1973 a new diocese was created out of the parts of other diocese now in East German territory. They were by and large not returned after reunification. One odd outlier in the whole Cold War period is the curate of Ostheim, which is technically still part of Fulda but is actually run by another diocese.
I suspect Tulsa will not be quite so interesting.
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