The Tsangos of Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History
The Tsangos of Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History The Tsangos of Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History
FOREWORDPublishing this book, some very precise notes are neededabout the nature of this publication and about the HungarianCsangos living in Moldavia. These points can be expressedsynthetically, as follows: clarity, concision, truth, cohabiting,critical attitude and chronology.1. Clarity. An engineer from Bacau confessed to me, thatuntil recently, both he and his friends, Moldavian catholics,lived in darkness about the real history of the Csangos, which isalso their provenance. However, since he started to research theearlier and later past of Moldavian catholics on the basis ofauthentical sources, his mind became enlightened and felt hecould find out the truth.As many others, I was satisfied for a long time with what welearnt in school. From time to time, I've read some books,which seemed to be sensational, or enlightening, but I did thataccidentally. The curiosity and will to find out the truth and tothrow real light on the past with its acute present implicationsgave me the strength to pick up in one single sweep the sourcesabout the origin of my people's history. People, who have beenliving on the sites of Moldavia from the XIIIth century, as it ismentioned in historical documents.I want to know the life of my ancestors - I was tellingmyself. There were some question marks, which bothers in anatural way any human being, who has the thirst for truth andthe will of coming out into the spotlight. From where are myancestors coming? When, how and why did they come here, toMoldavia? How did they live? What kind of sufferings did theyendure? Which were their historical traditions, what kind ofculture did they have, and passed on from generation togeneration? What language did they speak? What is the reasonwhy we, Hungarian Csangos from Moldavia don't have anywriters, poets, famous personalities? Did we have at least onespiritual leader, coming from the Hungarian catholics fromMoldavia? Or, maybe, these leaders belonged to another nation,or maybe, another religion? How did our ancestors live together
with the Moldavian Rumanians for over six centuries? Whatwere their sufferings and pain during these times, what illnessesovercame them? What destructions were caused by the Cumani,Ottoman and Tatar invasions? I wished to find the answersindeed to all these questions, not through a doctoral thesis ofinterpretations, but through historical sources (documents,reports of foreign travellers, notes and references) from thattime, without too many explanations.2. Concision. In the mean time I wanted to realize a smalldimensionalbook, for those, who have no time andprofessional background for scientific research. I also wantedmy work - a selection of texts coming from historical time -become a sort of guide, a working tool for those, who wouldlike to make some investigations about the Hungarian Csangosfrom Moldavia, in its historical context. For that I collected 92extracts, reproductions of sources, which contain referencesabout Hungarian catholics from Moldavia, which were entirelyor partly published in their original language or translated intoRumanian in great anthologies, collections of documents, orbasic interpretative works from the country and abroad. I didthis work to prevent the omission or ignoring the sources andfacts, because inside an interpretative work, based on readymadethoughts, people, who don't have enough time to makehistorical investigations, can be easily misinformed. I let sourcesfrom the period speak, with open objectivity.3. Truth. Often people don't like to hear the truth. EvenPilate asked Jesus, what is truth? "I am the truth", answered theSaviour. "The absolute truth". There are some other, mundanetruths as well: in science, human realities and others. That"truth", discordant with reality is a subjective one, a partialopinion, a ready thesis. When the historical reality sufferschanges, it can't be an absolute truth, because the establishmentof historical reality depends on many components. Historicalcriticism contains a trial of achieving the truth by consideringenvironments and events, which causes the appearance of adocument.Historical critics suppose the consideration of everydocument, their confrontation for establishing the realdevelopment of the related events and phenomenas. Historicalreality is tightly linked with the period, as it often happens, it issustained in a certain time. However, due to later descoveries, itcan change and face the analysed historical event and the
- Page 1 and 2: THE TSANGOS OF ROMANIATHE HUNGARIAN
- Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS1. Foreword2. Bernadette P
- Page 5 and 6: Prepublication version for the Inte
- Page 7 and 8: THE HISTORY OF THE CSÁNGÓSIn orde
- Page 9 and 10: heathen Cumanians, had an important
- Page 11 and 12: TWO VOIVODS (VAJDASÁGS) AREESTABLI
- Page 13 and 14: 4. Bogdán voivode of Máramaros 13
- Page 15 and 16: 11 Tatros: one church no priest12 R
- Page 17 and 18: were no Hungarian priests and in 17
- Page 19 and 20: THE ACCOUNTS OF PÁL PÉTER DOMOKOS
- Page 21 and 22: In Pusztina, the people believe tha
- Page 23 and 24: Pátria. Unfortunately only a few c
- Page 25 and 26: Csángós the intellectuals are mis
- Page 27: ORIGINAL EDITION IN RUMANIAN:HORVÁ
- Page 31 and 32: XVIIth centuries they couldn't come
- Page 33 and 34: At the end we mention the fact that
- Page 35 and 36: ILLUSTRIS REGIS UNGARIAE"To Bela, f
- Page 37 and 38: Original version in Latin: Anton Ke
- Page 39 and 40: 10. Sibiu, 11th of April, 1552Repor
- Page 41 and 42: "Calatori straini", II. Page 160"Th
- Page 43 and 44: saying that they are Roman, keeping
- Page 45 and 46: Original version in Italian: MCSMO,
- Page 47 and 48: churches from that of the Rumanian
- Page 49 and 50: good, Hungarian village, all cathol
- Page 51 and 52: needed. There are 3000 Hungarians i
- Page 53 and 54: liturgy, I've ordered to preach in
- Page 55 and 56: its disappearance."Original version
- Page 57 and 58: Targul Frumos: (maybe Campulung), w
- Page 59 and 60: Bacau: 200 houses, and there are so
- Page 61 and 62: tradition, the prettiest I've ever
- Page 63 and 64: Tratus: church of stone and a chape
- Page 65 and 66: The Apostolic visit of Moldavia 164
- Page 67 and 68: In this town there is another churc
- Page 69 and 70: Solont and it has 70 souls for comm
- Page 71 and 72: should keep more masses per day wit
- Page 73 and 74: Schismatic houses are 350, with 120
- Page 75 and 76: 34 believers.Lucacesti: The church
- Page 77 and 78: He often goes to work in the Tatar
with the Moldavian Rumanians for over six centuries? Whatwere their sufferings and pain during these times, what illnessesovercame them? What destructions were caused by the Cumani,Ottoman and Tatar invasions? I wished to find the answersindeed to all these questions, not through a doctoral thesis <strong>of</strong>interpretations, but through historical sources (documents,reports <strong>of</strong> foreign travellers, notes and references) from thattime, without too many explanations.2. Concision. In the mean time I wanted to realize a smalldimensionalbook, for those, who have no time andpr<strong>of</strong>essional background for scientific research. I also wantedmy work - a selection <strong>of</strong> texts coming from historical time -become a sort <strong>of</strong> guide, a working tool for those, who wouldlike to make some investigations about the <strong>Hungarian</strong> Csangosfrom Moldavia, in its historical context. For that I collected 92extracts, reproductions <strong>of</strong> sources, which contain referencesabout <strong>Hungarian</strong> catholics from Moldavia, which were entirelyor partly published in their original language or translated intoRumanian in great anthologies, collections <strong>of</strong> documents, orbasic interpretative works from the country and abroad. I didthis work to prevent the omission or ignoring the sources andfacts, because inside an interpretative work, based on readymadethoughts, people, who don't have enough time to makehistorical investigations, can be easily misinformed. I let sourcesfrom the period speak, with open objectivity.3. Truth. Often people don't like to hear the truth. EvenPilate asked Jesus, what is truth? "I am the truth", answered theSaviour. "<strong>The</strong> absolute truth". <strong>The</strong>re are some other, mundanetruths as well: in science, human realities and others. That"truth", discordant with reality is a subjective one, a partialopinion, a ready thesis. When the historical reality sufferschanges, it can't be an absolute truth, because the establishment<strong>of</strong> historical reality depends on many components. Historicalcriticism contains a trial <strong>of</strong> achieving the truth by consideringenvironments and events, which causes the appearance <strong>of</strong> adocument.Historical critics suppose the consideration <strong>of</strong> everydocument, their confrontation for establishing the realdevelopment <strong>of</strong> the related events and phenomenas. Historicalreality is tightly linked with the period, as it <strong>of</strong>ten happens, it issustained in a certain time. However, due to later descoveries, itcan change and face the analysed historical event and the
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