CSANÁD, DIOCESIS of. — In southern Hungary, on the eastern bank of the Tisza River. The diocese was founded by s. Stefano in 1030, after Captain C. defeated Achtum (Ajtony), the paganizing duke of the southern and Transylvanian regions. Ajtony’s principal fortress and city was called C. and became an episcopal see. Its first bishop was the Venetian s. Gerardo, who also founded a school for clerics and nobles, which became a center of learning for all southern Hungary. S. Gerardo was martyred in 1046 by rebellious pagans. Among his successors we also note another Italian: the scholar Giacomo da Piacenza (1333–43).
C. is one of the dioceses that has suffered most from the vicissitudes of Hungarian history. At the end of the 11th century it was devastated by invasions of the Cumans; in 1242 the Mongols exterminated and deported the entire population of the region. In 1514 it was the scene of the peasants’ rebellion, during which the bishop was also killed. From 1551 until the beginning of the 18th century it was a route of passage for the Turks, and C. once again became deserted. It was freed from the Turkish yoke after Eugenio di Savoia’s victories at Zenta (1697) and Temesvár (1716). In 1719 the episcopal see was established at Szeged (Seghedino), and then at Temesvár in 1738. Until 1920, the territory of the very extensive diocese comprised the provinces of C., Arad, Torontal, Krassó, and Temes. After the Treaty of Trianon, only the province of C. and fragments of the other provinces remained in Hungary, with 60 parishes and the episcopal see at Szeged, while the parishes in Romania formed the apostolic administration of Temesvár (Timisoara), and there is an apostolic administrator for the Yugoslav Banat. At present the diocese (in Hungary) has an area of 3,000 sq. km., numbers 60 parishes, and of its 330,000 inhabitants, 250,000 are Catholics (1948).