Founding Festival of the City Parish St. Cyriakus Bottrop

A New City Parish Celebrates Its Beginning

On Sunday, May 31, 2026, from 11:15 AM to 5:00 PM, the newly founded city parish St. Cyriakus will celebrate a grand Founding Festival on the church square in Bottrop-Stadtmitte. Occasion: Effective January 1, 2026, the previous parishes of St. Cyriakus and St. Joseph merged into the new city parish St. Cyriakus. This unites around 35,000 Catholic women and men in Alt-Bottrop into a single parish—the most significant structural change in Bottrop's Catholic community in generations.

Why This Merger?

The parish merger is part of a comprehensive restructuring of the Diocese of Essen. For years, the diocese has been responding to declining membership numbers, shortage of priests, and financial challenges by consolidating parishes into larger units. For Alt-Bottrop, this means: St. Cyriakus (with its venerable parish church building in the city center) and St. Joseph (in the Boy district) have been one parish since January 1, 2026, with a joint pastoral team, joint parish council, and joint administration.

The Founding Festival — Celebrating a Shared Identity

The Founding Festival on May 31 is more than a mandatory event. It is the moment when the members of both former parishes are meant to come together as one community for the first time. A festive day intended to foster the identity of the new city parish—while also integrating the grief and farewell to the old structures. This is no trivial task: Parish affiliation has grown over generations, with its own customs, its own choirs, its own volunteer work.

Program

The day follows a classic schedule:

• 11:15 AM — Festival begins with a solemn service on the church square (weather permitting) or in the parish church
• Followed by a welcome address from the pastoral team and local representatives
• Lunch — Community catering with dishes from both predecessor parishes
• Afternoon program — Booths from parish groups (Youth, Caritas, Choirs, Schützen, KAB), music, children's program
• 5:00 PM — End of the festival day

St. Cyriakus — The Patron Saint

Saint Cyriacus (or Cyriakos) is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and the patron saint against possession, serious illnesses, and temptations. The St. Cyriakus parish church in Bottrop, one of the city's oldest churches, dates back to the 11th century and is considered the historical heart of Bottrop. The fact that the new city parish bears the name St. Cyriakus is therefore also an acknowledgment of this centuries-long history.

Bottrop — City in the Vest Recklinghausen Region

Bottrop is an independent city in the Vest Recklinghausen region with around 117,000 inhabitants. It is located between Essen and Gelsenkirchen and has been predominantly Catholic for centuries. The Archdiocese of Essen—to which Bottrop belongs—is one of Germany's youngest dioceses (founded in 1958) and is particularly affected by the structural changes in the Ruhr area. The 2026 parish merger is part of this adaptation.