STRIGONIA (ESZTERGOM, GRAN), ARCHDIOCESE OF. – A city and archdiocese in Hungary. The archdiocese covers an area of 7,706 sq. km. with a population of 1,236,392, of whom 818,773 are Catholics distributed in 167 parishes with 394 churches. It has 520 secular priests and 671 ex-religious who were forced by anti-religious laws to abandon their convents. Moreover, in about 158 religious houses, some 250 nuns devoted themselves to the education of youth and to works of Christian charity. With the agreement imposed on the Hungarian episcopate by the communist government (1950), following the infamous condemnation of Cardinal Giuseppe 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 engaged. Until the nationalization of Catholic schools, which took place in 1948, more than 10,000 students attended the institutions run by religious orders and congregations.
The metropolitan see of Strigonia was founded by St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary and organizer of the Hungarian Church.