Wikipedia says that the first church on the site, a castle chapel, was consecrated to St. Elmo. "On 7 April 1465 - at Frederick Irontooth's request - Pope Paul II attributed to St Erasmus Chapel a canon-law College named Stift zu Ehren Unserer Lieben Frauen, des heiligen Kreuzes, St. Petri und Pauli, St. Erasmi und St. Nicolai dedicated to Mary(am) of Nazareth, the Holy Cross, Simon Peter, Paul of Tarsus, Erasmus of Formiae, and Nicholas of Myra."
What a mouthful. The first Lutheran Electors of Prussia kept this quite ridiculous name, but the Calvinist Elector John Siguesmund rededicated the church as the Supreme Parish Church of the Holy Trinity. Some time later the dedication to the Holy Trinity was omitted, so today the Berliner Dom has no specific patron. The Lutheran and Calvinist churches in Germany have now merged into one nondenominational Evangelical Church.
Like Westminster Abbey in England, the Berliner Dom was never a true cathedral- but as a collegiate church it had a chapter like that of a cathedral.
What a mouthful. The first Lutheran Electors of Prussia kept this quite ridiculous name, but the Calvinist Elector John Siguesmund rededicated the church as the Supreme Parish Church of the Holy Trinity. Some time later the dedication to the Holy Trinity was omitted, so today the Berliner Dom has no specific patron. The Lutheran and Calvinist churches in Germany have now merged into one nondenominational Evangelical Church.
Like Westminster Abbey in England, the Berliner Dom was never a true cathedral- but as a collegiate church it had a chapter like that of a cathedral.
Most of this information came from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Dom
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