ROSNAVIA (Slov. ROŽŠAVA, Hung. ROŽŠNÝO, Ger. ROSENAU), DIOCESE OF. — In Czechoslovakia; in 1927 the entire diocese, with its Slovak and Hungarian parts, had 102 parishes and 220,727 Catholics. In 1949 the diocese in Slovakia had an area of 6,168 sq. km and a population of 313,695, of whom 167,338 were Catholics, distributed among 192 churches and 88 parishes served by 115 diocesan priests; 5 houses of male religious and 12 of female religious. The apostolic administration in Hungary comprised 19 parishes and 63,618 Catholics.
The diocese was erected on 13 March 1776, separating the comitats of Turna, Gemer, and Novohrad from the archdiocese of Strigonia. The great distance of these comitats from Strigonia was precisely the reason why, during the Protestant Reformation, Catholicism greatly declined (at the beginning of the seventeenth century there were no more than three Catholic priests). Pázmány (v.) had already considered establishing a new diocese, but the project was realized only under the empress Maria Theresa. Most of the population was reconciled with the Church, but the diocese has always had a high percentage of Protestants; in some districts they are the majority.
After the First World War, the Czechoslovak frontier divided the diocese; most of the parishes, together with the episcopal city, passed to Czechoslovakia, while the smaller part remained in Hungary. In 1937 the diocese situated in Slovakia was detached from the ecclesiastical province of Strigonia, and for the Hungarian part the Holy See established an apostolic administration. In 1938, with the change of the frontier, the episcopal see passed into Hungary, and an apostolic administration was constituted for the Slovak part, united with that of Cassovia. After the Second World War (1945), the prewar situation was restored.