ALBA REGIA [SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR], Diocese of. - In Hungarian Székesfehérvár, in German Stuhlweissenburg. The city was the residence of the kings of Hungary for 500 years (whence the name), and the place of royal burial until 1543. Stephen I built a basilica there and founded a collegiate chapter there, charged with guarding the Holy Crown. Maria Theresa, on 16 June 1777, erected the bishopric there, as a suffragan of Esztergom. The grandiose cathedral of St. Stephen was completed in 1786. A. R. remained, from 1543 to 1681, under the yoke of the Turks, who, in 1601, destroyed the royal Basilica.

The best-known bishop, also outside Hungary, is Ottokar Prohászka, a great sacred and secular orator, an excellent writer, an indefatigable promoter of agrarian reform, who died in Budapest, in the pulpit, on 2 April 1927. Above his tomb, at A. R., a grateful Hungary erected a church in his memory. The diocese has 390,000 Catholics, out of 508,063 inhabitants; 127 parishes, 242 diocesan priests and 56 regular clergy.

Bibliography

BIBL.: I. Paner, Historia dioecesis Albaregalensis, Székesfehérvár 1877.

Giuseppe Löw

@incollection{ec1_alba_reale_diocesi_di, author = {Lów, Giuseppe}, title = {Alba Reale, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {654}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/alba-reale-diocesi-di} }

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Alba Regia [Székesfehérvár], Diocese of

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