AGRIA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - In Hungarian Eger, in German Erlau, it is a city of approximately 30,000 inhabitants in the district of Heves (Hungary). According to tradition, the bishopric was erected by St Stephen King in 1009. It was richly endowed by various kings and was finally raised to an archbishopric on 9 Aug. 1804, with four suffragans: two created on the same date, Cassovia and Szatmar, and two pre-existing, Rosenau and Zips.
Among its bishops may be mentioned: Gabriele Rangone, an Italian Minorite, companion of St Giovanni da Capistrano, bishop of Transilvania (1472), then of A. (1475), and cardinal (1477), who died in 1484; and Ladislao Pyrker, a Cistercian monk of Lilienfeld (Lower Austria), abbot there, bishop of Zips (1818), patriarch of Venice (1821), then archbishop of A. (1827). A noted German poet, he devoted much effort to school education, promoted charitable institutions, and built the grand Neoclassical-style cathedral. He died in Vienna in 1847 and was buried at Lilienfeld.
The archdiocese has 4 archdeaconries, 30 vice-archdeaconries, and 272 parishes; it has 990,233 faithful, 470 secular priests, and 101 regular clergy.