HAJDUDOROGH. - A large town in the north-east of the Hungarian plain, where in 1873 the Ruthenian bishop of Mukacevo established an episcopal vicariate for the Ruthenian population that had descended from Podcarpathia and become Magyarized. The portion of the Eastern liturgy sung by the people had been translated into Hungarian, and in 1900 Leo XIII had even been asked to permit the adoption of Hungarian as the liturgical language. In 1912, at the personal request of Francesco Giuseppe to Pius X, H. was erected into a diocese, the only Hungarian diocese of the Byzantine rite, with parishes detached not only from the Ruthenian dioceses of Prjasev (8) and Mukacevo (70), but also (85) from three Romanian dioceses (Romanian-Byzantine rite) in Transylvania, still Hungarian at the time.
The assignment of 72,000 Romanian faithful to a Magyar diocese caused immense agitation in Transylvania and Romania, and there were even cries of Los von Rom! Yet the moderating attitude of political figures such as Al Cuza and Nicolae Iorga should be noted. The agitation subsided during the war.
In 1919 all the Romanian parishes returned to their own dioceses. The intended use of Greek in the liturgy was not implemented. In the Annuario of 1918 the faithful numbered 217,640; in 1932 (and in 1926: Janin), they numbered 142,000, with 106 priests.