SATU MARE (SATHMAR, SATU(L)-MARE, Hung. SAZTMÁR), DIOCESE OF. — Also called Gran Varadino (Rom. Oradea Mare, Hung. Nagyvárad, Ger. Gross-Wardein). A Latin diocese situated between the Hungarian plain and the Transylvanian plateau, likewise politically Hungarian from 1000 and incorporated into Romania in 1918.
The diocese of Gran Varadino (Nagyvárad), founded ca. 1077, had its first bishop in 1103. In 1930, by virtue of the Concordat between the Holy See and Romania, S. M. (erected on 12 Sept. 1804) was united to it, and it became a suffragan of Bucharest. Nagyvárad belonged to Transylvania during the period of semi-independence of the Protestant principality under Turkish vassalage, which ended with the Habsburgs at the end of the 17th century. In the following century it was reunited with Hungary, depending first on the see of Esztergom and then (1852) on that of Kalocsa. The Romanian Greek-Catholic diocese established in 1777 at Oradea (v.) was initially a kind of vicariate for the faithful of the Byzantine rite. During the Romanian regime, the Catholic bishop of the Romanian rite remained at Oradea Mare, while the Latin bishop established his residence at S. M., which is already mentioned in a papal document of 1216 in favor of Eastern monks who had possessions there as far as the «Dissa».
In June 1941, with the reannexation of northern Transylvania to Hungary, S. M. was separated from Gran Varadino and placed directly under the Holy See, but in Apr. 1948 it was returned to Oradea Mare. Its last bishop, Msgr. Giovanni Scheffler, is currently (1952) in prison, persecuted by the Communists. Before
the persecution, statistics reported ca. 200,000 faithful and 121 parishes among more than 1,500,000 inhabitants.