Veszprém, Diocese of

VESZPRÉM, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in Hungary. It has an area of 13,710 sq km with a population of 874,163 inhabitants, of whom 703,198 are Catholics. In 1949 they were distributed among 329 parishes served by 440 diocesan priests and 183 regulars; furthermore a seminary, 22 male religious communities and 47 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 446).

The city of V. is one of the oldest in Hungary. Blessed Gisella, wife of King St. Stephen, chose it as her residence and built there the first Cathedral, which in the Middle Ages had attached to it a school where, besides Latin, logic and rhetoric, the quadrivium was also taught, and which enjoyed high renown. It was sacked several times and suffered Turkish domination. Today one can admire on the southern side of the Cathedral a chapel dating back to the 11th century, in which paintings of the time are still preserved. It is the oldest reminder of Hungarian Gothic. Around the city one can see the evocative ruins of the convent of the Dominicans founded by Blessed Gisella, in which St. Margaret of Hungary was educated. The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Michael. The diocese is a suffragan of Strigonia.

The diocese at its foundation, that is in 1009, was very extensive, and the bishops of V. always had a great part in the Catholic life of the country. A prerogative of the bishop of V. still from the earliest times was that of crowning the queen, and this prerogative was also recognized to him by the Holy See in 1220. The bishops of V. distinguished themselves especially in the struggle against the Turks. The most illustrious and valiant were Janos Vitéz (1489-99) and Péter Beriszlo (1512-20). But in 1526 the Turks invaded the whole region, and at the time of bishop Pal Bornemissza (1549-53) the episcopal see was transferred to Sümeg. Once the territory was finally liberated, the diocese, from the 18th century, began a new life full of intense activity, governed by bishops illustrious for learning and holiness. Janos Ottó Volkra (1710-20) built the Seminary; Imre Esterházy (1723-25), later archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary, built the new Cathedral, and bishop Márton Biro (1745-62), who died in the fame of holiness, built or restored as many as 107 churches. In 1777 the diocese was considerably reduced, because from it the diocese of Székesfehérvár was erected. Today the bishop of V. is Msgr. Bertalan Badalik O. P., who together with Fr. Bangha S. J. and his lamented predecessor in the episcopal see, Msgr. Toht Tihamér, did so much for the Catholic rebirth of Hungary after the First World War.

Giulio Toth