012012 - Prešovská univerzita v Prešove

THEOLOGOS 1/2012 | ŠTÚDIE
Rome, as happened briefly at Eger from 1688 to 1718, 28 we cannot assume
such a turn of events. According to the visitation notes of 1746, “the
Greeks starting with this century, ever since they have been in Miskolc,
have always had their own priest.” At the same time the visitation records
also observe about the previously mentioned regular cleric Leonidius that
“he is well behaved in matters relating to the jurisdiction of the Latin rite
parish. He celebrates in his own chapel, he administers the Sacrament of
the Eucharist and extreme unction to the Greeks, but he neither baptizes
nor buries without the permission of the Latin parson.” 29 Thus, we can see
that despite the Reformed majority in the town and on the town council,
the Catholic parson could enforce his will in external matters even in
the non-Uniate parish. The canonical visitation of 1769 reveals that the
Catholic hierarchy was not yet satisfied; and as the visitation records note,
the Latin authorities prescribed that the Greek clergy “be subordinated in
every stolic matter to the authority of the Catholic parson,” and even that
“the Greeks should not be permitted to have their own priest.” 30 In all
likelihood there was some effort to unify the Greeks with the Catholics,
and the best opportunity for unification would be when the Greeks lacked
a permanent parish priest.
Increasing the number of Uniate parishes was not only in the interest
of the Bishop of Eger but also the Bishop of Munkács. They could better
justify their position within the Catholic church if they strove by all means
to bring about a union with the still existing, or newly formed, Orthodox
congregations in their diocese, or worked to strengthen the Uniate parishes
on whom the suspicion of schism still continued to weigh heavily. Although
during the prelacy of Bishop György Bizánczy, 1716-1733, the struggle to
expand the union was concentrated primarily in Máramaros, it is highly
likely that the Bishop of Munkács considered the Greek Orthodox to be
potential members of the Uniate Church no matter where they might live.
Therefore it is possible that in consideration of the small Ruthenian Uniate
congregation and the Greek Orthodox community in Miskolc, which - as
far as the Romanist Bishop of Munkács was concerned - was a candidate
for union, György Bizánczy legally established a unified congregation;
and the bishop consecrated a priest, perhaps the previously mentioned
elder István Ternai, to lead it. We might also suppose that during the
times when no itinerant Orthodox minister was caring for the souls of
the Greeks in Miskolc the Uniate cleric perhaps tried to win them over to
28 J. Bihari, Fejezetek az egri szerbek és görögök történetéből” [Chapters from the History
of the Serbs and Greeks in Eger], Az Egri Pedagógiai Főiskola Évkönyve [The Yearbook
of the Teacher Training College at Eger] 2(1956): 392-456.
29 EFL, Arch. Nov. 3412, no. 110.
30 Ibid., Arch. Nov. no. 3418.
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