STREITEL, MARIA FRANZISKA. – Founder of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Born in Mellrichstadt (diocese of Würzburg) on 24 November 1844; died in Castro S. Elia (diocese of Nepi) on 6 March 1911.
Raised piously and devoted to works of piety, at the age of 21 she entered the Third Order of St Francis, among whom from 1866 to 1882 she held various offices and positions. Desiring a stricter life, she then entered the Carmelites, but was unable to remain. After a few months, called to Rome by Fr Giovanni Jordan, founder of the Society of the Divine Saviour, she founded under his guidance the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, approved by the Cardinal Vicar in 1885, with the purpose of assisting the sick in hospitals and private homes, running orphanages, schools, kindergartens and hospices. In 1886 she was appointed Mother General, serving in this role for ten years, until deposed on false accusations. She lived and worked for another fifteen years, first in Rome and then in Castro S. Elia, in the greatest humility, entirely dedicated to prayer, penance and the education of children. Her death revealed her remarkable holiness, attested by the extraordinary graces granted to those who invoked her; her cause of beatification was introduced on 13 June 1947.
STRICKER, DER. – A wandering German poet of whom it is known only that he was from Franconia and lived in Austria around 1250.
Besides a poem on Charlemagne, he composed the chivalric poem Daniel von dem blühenden Tal, in which he elaborated in the style of Hartmann, drawing on traditional motifs and citing Alberic of Besançon as his guarantor, a Arthurian legend. He is better known, however, as a burlesque poet, for his Schwänke or comic tales and his Bispel or satirical parables, especially for that collection of jests attributed to the Priest Amis, a type of cunning trickster who begins with innocent pranks and ends by deceiving even his bishop through false relics or by feigning miracles with clever tricks. Stricker may be considered a precursor of that satirical poetry which, while ostentatiously moral in purpose, poured its scorn upon entire social classes and later culminated in the famous Till Eulenspiegel.
STRIGONIA (ESZTERGOM, GRAN), ARCHDIOCESE OF. – Town and archdiocese in Hungary. The archdiocese covers an area of 7,706 km² with a population of 1,236,392, of whom 818,773 are Catholics distributed across 167 parishes with 394 churches. It has 520 diocesan priests and 671 ex-religious forced by anti-religious laws to abandon their convents. In addition, in about 158 religious houses some 250 sisters devoted themselves to the education of youth and works of Christian charity. With the agreement imposed on the Hungarian episcopate by the communist government (1950), following the infamous conviction of Cardinal József Mindszenty (1949), all religious orders were suppressed except for six male and two female convents with their respective schools.
In the catechetical instruction in elementary and secondary schools about 250 priests and catechists are employed. Until the nationalisation of Catholic schools in 1948, more than 10,000 students attended institutions run by religious orders and congregations.
The metropolitan see of Strigonia was founded by St Stephen, the first king of Hungary and organiser of the Hungarian Church, and dates back to 999, the year before the king’s canonisation. The country was divided by him into two ecclesiastical provinces: Strigonia and Kalocsa. Strigonia was not merely destined to become a metropolitan see, but—as later emerges from an act of Charles I—mater et caput of all the churches of Hungary. This concept is also expressed in the Legenda Maior of St Stephen and was codified in 1550 as article XVIII of Hungarian legislation. The privileged position is also evident in the choice of metropolitan see: Strigonia was the first capital of the kingdom established and organised by St Stephen, the centre of the first stable political foundation in the Danube basin after the migration of peoples into Europe. The holy king made the royal art of Strigonia the residence of the archbishop. Strigonia remained the seat of the extensive archdiocese until the end of the 16th century, but when the Turks occupied it in 1543 under Archbishop Pál Várady (1526–29), the see was transferred to Nagyszombat (Trnava) and did not return until 1820 under Archbishop Sándor Rudnay (1819–31).
The first in the succession of archbishops was the Benedictine Anastasius (d. 1036), and the first cardinal among the archbishops was István Vancsa (1252–68). The title of Primate of Hungary and of Legatus natus of the Holy See was first granted to János Kanizsai (1387–1418) by Pope Boniface IX, and from the time of the famous Cardinal Tamás Bakócz (1497–1518) the two dignities were always linked to the see of Strigonia. In 1714 Archbishop Ágoston Cseszneky (1707–25) obtained for himself and his successors the additional title of Imperial Prince.
The title of Primate of Hungary is not merely an honorary title but also carries certain jurisdiction. The first mention of the archbishop of Strigonia as Primate dates from the time of King St Ladislaus (1077–95) on the occasion of the foundation of the diocese 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 be preceded by the cross throughout the country. Over the centuries the rights and privileges multiplied, and according to the Synod of Nagyszombat in 1630, under the presidency of Cardinal Péter Pázmány, archbishop of Strigonia and leader of the Hungarian Catholic Reformation, the relationship of the archbishop of Strigonia to the other archbishops of the country was equivalent to that of an archbishop to his suffragan bishops. This juridical position was repeatedly confirmed in official rescripts of the Holy See (Boniface IX, Nicholas V, Leo X) and was recognised in the founding bull of the archbishop of Eger (1804). The bull, while exempting the new archbishop from the metropolitan jurisdiction of Strigonia, fully confirms the primatial jurisdiction itself. The archbishop of Strigonia exercises primatial jurisdiction in Hungary: his tribunal is the superior court of appeal for archiepiscopal tribunals, and the Primate has the right of visitation even in monasteries exempt from ordinary episcopal jurisdiction. According to common Hungarian law, based on ancient constitutional tradition, the Primate is the chancellor of the kingdom, the king’s chief counsellor, the keeper of the seals and a member of the supreme tribunal of the kingdom. He crowns the king.
The ecclesiastical province of Strigonia extended over most of historical Hungary. Among the ten bishoprics founded by St Stephen were Győr (Jaurinum), Vác (Vacia), Pécs (Quinque Ecclesiae), Veszprém (Vesprimia), Eger (Agria), and from the 11th century also the diocese of Nyitra (Nitra), formed from the northern part of the archdiocese—all of which were under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Strigonia. Following the new territorial arrangement of Hungarian dioceses in the 18th century, the following new suffragan sees were added to the previous ones: Székes