AGRIA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — In Hungarian Eger, in German Erlau, it is a city of about 30,000 inhabitants, in the district of Heves (Hungary). The bishopric is said to have been established, according to tradition, by St. Stephen King, in 1009. It was richly endowed by various kings, and finally, on August 9, 1804, elevated to an archbishopric, with four suffragan sees, namely two created on the same date, Kaschau and Szatmar, and two pre-existing ones, Rosenau and Zips.
Among the bishops we recall: Gabriel Rangone, an Italian Franciscan, companion of St. John of Capistrano, bishop of Transylvania (1472), then of A. (1475), and cardinal (1477), d. in 1484; and Ladislaus Pyrker, 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 worked greatly for school education, promoted charitable institutions, and built the grand cathedral in neoclassical style. He died in Vienna in 1847 and was buried in Lilienfeld.
The archdiocese comprises 4 archdeaconries, 30 vicar-archdeaconries, 272 parishes; it has 990,233 faithful, 470 secular priests, 101 regular clergy.