ESZTERGOM (GRAN), ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in Hungary. The archdiocese has an area of 7,706 sq km with a population of 1,236,392 inhabitants, of whom 818,773 are Catholics distributed in 167 parishes with 394 churches. It has 520 secular priests and 671 former regulars forced by the anti-religious laws to abandon their convents. Moreover, in 158 religious houses about 250 nuns devoted themselves to the education of youth and to the works of Christian charity. With the agreement imposed on the Hungarian episcopate by the communist government (1950), after the infamous condemnation of Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty (1949), all the religious Orders, except six male and two female convents with their respective schools, were suppressed.
In catechetical teaching in elementary and secondary schools about 250 priests and catechists work. Until the nationalization of Catholic schools, which took place in 1948, more than 10,000 students attended the institutes run by the religious Orders and congregations.
The metropolitan see of S., founded by St. Stephen, first king of Hungary and organizer of the Hungarian Church, dates back to 999, the year preceding the coronation of the holy King. The country was divided by him into two ecclesiastical provinces: S. and Kalocsa. S. was not destined merely to become a metropolitan see, but — as is later evident from an act of Charles I — mater et caput of all the churches of Hungary. This concept is expressed also in the Legenda Maior of St. Stephen and was codified in 1550 as article XVIII of Hungarian legislation. The privileged position appears also in the choice of the metropolitan see: S. was the first capital of the Kingdom constituted and organized by St. Stephen, the center of the first political foundation with a character of stability in the Danube basin, after the migration of peoples into Europe. The holy King made the royal citadel of S. the residence of the archbishop. S. remained the seat of the extensive archdiocese until the end of the 16th century, but when the Turks in 1543, under Archbishop Paul Varady (1526-29), occupied S., the see was transferred to Nagyszombat (Trnava) and did not return before 1820 under the regime of Archbishop Alexander Rudnay (1819-31).
The first in the succession of archbishops was the Benedictine Anastasius (d. 1036) and the first cardinal among the archbishops was Stephen Vancha (1252-68). The title of primate of Hungary and of Legatus natus of the Holy See was granted for the first time to John Kanizsay (1387-1418) by Pope Boniface IX, and from the time of the famous Cardinal Thomas Bakocz (1497-1518) the two dignities were always linked to the see of S. In 1714 Archbishop Augustine Keresztely (1707-25) obtained for himself and for his successors also the title of imperial prince.
The title of primate of Hungary is not a simple title of honor, but also carries with it a certain jurisdiction. The first mention of the archbishop of S. as primate dates back to the time of King St. Ladislaus (1077-95) on the occasion of the founding of the bishopric of Zagreb. The principal rights of the primate at that time were the coronation of the king and the convocation of the national synod. To express his jurisdiction the primate could have himself preceded by the cross throughout the country. In the course of the centuries the rights and privileges multiplied; according to the Synod of Nagyszombat in 1630, under the presidencies of Cardinal Peter Pazmany, archbishop of S. and head of the Catholic reform in Hungary, the relation of the archbishop of S. to the other archbishops of the country is equivalent to the relation of an archbishop to his suffragan bishops. This juridical position was repeatedly confirmed in the official rescripts of the Holy See (Boniface IX, Nicholas V, Leo X) and was recognized in the bull of foundation of the archbishopric of Eger (Agria) in 1804. The bull in fact, while exempting the new archbishopric from the metropolitan jurisdiction of S., fully confirms that same primatial jurisdiction. The archbishop of S. exercises primatial jurisdiction in Hungary: his tribunal is the higher court of appeal of the archiepiscopal tribunals, and the primate has the right of visitation also in monasteries exempt from ordinary episcopal jurisdiction. The primate, according to the common Hungarian law, founded on the ancient constitution, is the chancellor of the kingdom, the first counselor of the king, the keeper of the seals and also a member of the supreme tribunal of the kingdom. He crowns the king.
The ecclesiastical province of S. extended over most of historic Hungary. Among the ten bishoprics founded by St. Stephen, Győr (Raab), Vác (Waitzen), Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Veszprém (Weszprim), Eger (Agria) — and from the 11th century also the bishopric of Nyitra (Nitra), formed from the northern part of the archdiocese — were under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of S. Following the new territorial arrangement of the dioceses of Hungary in the 18th century, the following new suffragan sees were added to the previous ones: Székesfehérvár (Alba Reale), Szombathély (Sabaria), Szepes (Scepusio), Rozsnyo (Rosnavia) and Besztercebánya (Neosolio). The last three became suffragans of the see of Eger, when in 1804 it was promoted to the rank of metropolitan see. The territory proper of the see of S. was also very large. Its direct jurisdiction extended over 15 counties, over the then united cities of Buda and Pest, over the entire island of Csepel, as a royal latifundium, and finally over the provostry of Nagyszeben. This territory was administered by 3 vicars general and 12 rural deans.
The spiritual center of the archdiocese was the cathedral church built by St. Stephen. After its destruction and subsequent reconstruction in the 12th and 14th centuries, in the time of Archbishop Dionysius Szecsi (1440-65) the Cathedral was completely restored. In 1507 Thomas Bakocz had added a chapel built by Andrea Ferrucci da Fiesole. This chapel is the finest monument of the Renaissance in Hungary. During the Turkish invasion and occupation in the 16th and 17th centuries most of the Cathedral was destroyed. The new Basilica was consecrated in 1856 under Archbishop John Scitovszky. In 1882 John Simor had the archiepiscopal Palace built and founded there the Christian Museum endowed with a rich collection of drawings, paintings, sculptures, tapestries and ceramics, with a numismatic and archaeological collection, thus documenting the interest of the archbishops of S. in art and culture.
Until the First World War the archdiocese of S. was the most extensive in Hungary. The new ecclesiastical arrangement following the Treaty of Trianon took away 393 of its 482 parishes. With these the apostolic administration of Nagyszombat (Trnava) in Czechoslovakia was organized. As an archiepiscopal vicariate Budapest also belongs to the archdiocese. Between the two wars, following the rapid increase of the population in the capital, it was necessary to reorganize the parishes. In a few years 36 new parish centers were built. At present there exist in Budapest about 100 public churches and chapels, and there were also located there the convents of all the most important Orders and religious congregations, before their suppression, which took place officially in 1950.
The archiepiscopal Seminary, the first seminary in Hungary, was founded by Nicholas Olah (1554-68) at Nagyszombat, and was transferred after the expulsion of the Turks from S. Besides this there exists in Budapest a central Seminary for all the dioceses of Hungary. Under the supervision of the archbishop of S. is also the Pazmaneum, a seminary
Hungarian seminary in Vienna, founded by the famous archbishop of the Catholic Reformation, Cardinal Péter Pázmány, and the "Institutum Ecclesiasticum Hungarorum in Urbe." The only theological faculty in Hungary, whose chancellor is always the cardinal primate, is located in Budapest, currently separated from the state university of the communist government.
Bibliography5 works
Gerardo Békés