Archbishopric of Kalocsa

Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét Archidioecesis Colocensis-Kecskemetensis Kalocsa-Kecskeméti főegyházmegye
Cathedral in Kalocsa
Location
Country	Hungary
Ecclesiastical province	Kalocsa-Kecskemét
Statistics
Area	8,372 km2 (3,232 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2014) 536,409 368,755 (68.7%)
Parishes	127
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Latin
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Assumption in Kalocsa
Co-cathedral	Co-Cathedral of the Ascension of Our Lord in Kecskemét
Patron saint	St Paul
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop	Balázs Bábel
Suffragans	Diocese of Pécs Diocese of Szeged–Csanád
Vicar General	Finta József
Episcopal Vicars	Polyák Imre
Map
Website
Website of the Diocese

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kalocsa–Kecskemét (Hungarian: Kalocsa–Kecskeméti Főegyházmegye, Latin: Archidioecesis Colocensis–Kecskemetensis) is an Archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. Since 1993, its official name is Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét. The diocese is the metropolitan of the Diocese of Pécs and the Diocese of Szeged-Csanád. The patron saint is Saint Paul. The current archbishop is Balázs Bábel, who was appointed in 1999.

In his monography about the early history of the Archbishopric of Kalocsa, the Hungarian historian László Koszta concludes that the "establishment of the Diocese of Kalocsa is one of the most debated issues of our ecclesiastic history in the Age of the Árpáds". Indeed, several important details of the early history of the episcopal see are uncertain. The date of its establishment is unknown; its early status—a bishopric, a metropolitan archdiocese or an archbishopric without suffragan bishops—is obscure; its first (arch)bishop is uncertain; and its connection with the see of Bács (now Bač, Serbia) is debated.

According to Hartvik, an early-12th-century biographer of the first king of Hungary, Stephen I, the king "divided his territories into ten bishoprics", making the archbishopric of Esztergom "the metropolitan and master of the others", and bestowed "the dignity of the bishop of Kalocsa" on Abbot Astrik. Astrik, continued Hartvik, was appointed to the see of Esztergom to substitute Archbishop Sebastian who had gone blind, but Asterik "returned to Kalocsa with the pallium" (the archbishops' specific vestment) when Sebastian received back his sight three years later. Stephen's earlier hagiography, the longer version of the Life of Saint Stephen, King of Hungary, did not mention this episode and exclusively referred to Astrik as archbishop of Esztergom. The cathedral church at Kalocsa was dedicated to Paul the Apostle who was renowned especially for his missionary activities. The patron saint implies that the see was established as a missionary bishopric, possibly aimed at the conversion of the so-called Black Hungarians (as it is proposed by historian Gábor Thoroczkay).