Ansgar, also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" because of his travels and the See of Hamburg received the missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe.
The Church of Norway is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church became the state church of Norway around 1020, and was established as a separate church intimately integrated with the state as a result of the Lutheran reformation in Denmark–Norway which broke ties with the Holy See in 1536–1537; the King of Norway was the church's head from 1537 to 2012. Historically the church was one of the main instruments of royal power and official authority, and an important part of the state administration; local government was based on the church's parishes with significant official responsibility held by the parish priest.
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church, sometimes called the Church of Denmark, is the established, state-supported church in Denmark. The supreme secular authority of the church is composed of the reigning monarch and Denmark's Parliament, the Folketing. As of 1 January 2024, 71.4% of the population of Denmark are members, though membership is voluntary.
The Catholic Church in Sweden is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. It was established by Archbishop Ansgar in Birka in 829, and further developed by the Christianization of Sweden in the 9th century. King Olof Skötkonung is considered the first Christian king of Sweden.
Religion in Norway is dominated by Lutheran Christianity, with 63.7% of the population belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2022. The Catholic Church is the next largest Christian church at 3.1%. The unaffiliated make up 18.3% of the population. Islam is followed by 3.4% of the population.
The Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands goes back to the year 999, when king Olav Tryggvason of Norway sent Sigmundur Brestisson on a mission to the islands with several priests. The islands became an independent diocese in 1111, but were officially reformed in 1537 and the last Catholic bishop was executed in 1538. After 1538, the Catholic Church was only revived in 1931 as a part of the bishopric of Copenhagen. The state church is now the Protestant Faroese People's Church.
Christianity is the largest religion in Denmark. As of 2022, 72.5% of the population of Denmark were registered members of the Church of Denmark, the officially established church, which is Protestant in classification and Lutheran in orientation.
The Catholic Church in the Nordic countries was the only Christian church in that region before the Reformation in the 16th century. Since then, Scandinavia has been a mostly non-Catholic (Lutheran) region and the position of Nordic Catholics for many centuries after the Reformation was very difficult due to legislation outlawing Catholicism. However, the Catholic population of the Nordic countries has seen some growth in the region in recent years, particularly in Norway, in large part due to immigration and to a lesser extent conversions among the native population.
The Diocese of Copenhagen is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church named after its episcopal see, the Danish national capital, Copenhagen and covers all Denmark. As in neighbouring provinces, none of the pre-Reformation bishoprics were re-established after Lutheranism became the new official state church in the 16th century). The diocese also covers two Danish overseas possessions, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is estimated that 36,000 (0.7%) out of the 5,516,597 inhabitants of the diocesan territory are Catholics.
The Catholic Church in Norway is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. As of May 2014, there were over 151,000 registered Catholics in Norway. It is claimed there are many Catholics who are not registered with their personal identification number and who are not reported by the local church; the full number may be as high as 230,000, 70% of whom were born abroad. That constitutes about 5% of the population, making Norway the most Catholic country in Nordic Europe.
The Catholic Church in Iceland is part of the Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. The island is served by a single diocese, the Diocese of Reykjavík, having a total of seven parishes. As of 2015, the ordinary is bishop Dávid Bartimej Tencer. The diocese is directly subject to the Holy See.
Antvorskov Monastery was the principal Scandinavian monastery of the Catholic Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, located about one kilometer south of the town of Slagelse on Zealand, Denmark.
The former Diocese of Ribe was a Roman Catholic diocese in Southern Jutland, Denmark. The diocese was established in 948, and dissolved in 1536 during the Protestant Reformation. Within the newly established protestant Church of Denmark, the Diocese of Ribe effectively replaced its Roman Catholic precursor.
The Ukrainian (Greek) Catholic Apostolic Exarchate in Germany and Scandinavia (German: Apostolisches Exarchat für Deutschland und Skandinavien Latin: Exarchatus Apostolicus Germaniae et Scandiae) (Germany and Scandinavia for the Ukrainians) is an Apostolic Exarchate (pre-diocesan jurisdiction) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church that covers the faithful in Germany and the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Czeslaw Kozon is a Danish prelate of the Catholic Church who has been bishop of the Diocese of Copenhagen since 1995.
Saint Ansgar's Cathedral in Copenhagen, Denmark is the principal church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen, which encompasses all of Denmark, including the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It was consecrated in 1842 and became a cathedral in 1941.
The Catholic Church in Greenland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are very few Catholics in this overwhelmingly Protestant territory. There are 50 registered Catholics and only approximately 4 native Greenlander Catholics out of a population of 57,000. They are part of the only Catholic parish in Greenland, in Nuuk, the island's capital. The whole island is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Christianity is a prevalent religion in Denmark; in January 2023, 72.1% of the population of Denmark were members of the Church of Denmark. According to a survey based on a sample 1,114, 25% of Danes believe Jesus is the son of God, and 18% believe he is the saviour of the world. Aside from Lutheranism, there is a small Catholic minority, as well as small Protestant denominations such as the Baptist Union of Denmark and the Reformed Synod of Denmark.
Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, known after 1991 as Markus Bernt Eidsvig, is a Norwegian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been the Bishop of Oslo since 2005 and the Apostolic Administrator of the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Trondheim from 2009 until 2019.
The majority of the Greenlandic population is Christian and associates with the Church of Denmark via the Church of Greenland, which is Protestant in classification and Lutheran in orientation. The Church of Denmark is the established church through the Constitution of Denmark; this applies to all of the Kingdom of Denmark, except for the Faroe Islands, as the Church of the Faroe Islands became independent in 2007. But traditional Inuit spiritual beliefs remain strong in many of Greenland's remote communities.
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