012012 - Prešovská univerzita v Prešove

Baán István
Bacsinszky was unable to arrange the transference of the church
at Mindszent to the Greek Catholics, but he did everything in order to
provide a church for the believers in Miskolc. In 1797 the long drawn out
negotiations finally succeeded in obtaining decree number 14,374 from
the governor-general’s council, which directed that an appropriate plot of
land must be designated for the building of a Uniate church. On August
20th of the same year the treasury official Ferenc Dary as well as the
pastor of Görömböly András Csirszky, the pastor of Hejőkeresztúr András
Dudinszky, and the pastor of Sajópetri Péter Petrik examined the plot for
the church that was to be carved out of the Ötvös and Bentsik properties
in Ujváros. The cost of building the new church, the rectory, as well as the
houses for the cantor and the bell ringer were calculated at 29,275 Rhenish
florins. 36 Nevertheless Bacsinszky was unable to begin building the church
at that time, and the plans would only be carried out a century later.
The number of Greek Catholic believers in Miskolc grew rapidly. By
1794 the town had 376; 37 and in 1806 the faithful numbered 397. 38 Unlike
in Görömböly where the sermons continued to be held in Ruthenian, at
the beginning of the century the language for preaching in Miskolc was
Hungarian, a practice which seems to indicate a degree of assimilation.
Another significant Uniate community came into being at Felsőzsolca
near Miskolc. While in 1746 only one Ruthenian family lived there, 39 by
1769 there were 162 adults and seventy-four children, 40 and in 1792 the
number of believers reached 397. 41 At first the village remained an outparish
of Sajópetri, but by 1803 it had become an independent congregation.
In 1746 Diósgyőr had fifty-three Ruthenians, 42 but their number
gradually declined to only twenty-five in 1792 43 and sixteen in 1806, who
all lived on the crown property. 44 These Greek Catholics were under the
jurisdiction of the church at Görömböly. In Csaba on the other hand the
Greek Catholic community grew steadily from seven in 1746 45 to eighty-
36 EFL Arch. Vet. 1596.
37 I. Bendász and I. Koi, A Munkácsi Görögkatolikus Egyházmegye lelkészségeinek 1792.
évi katalógusa [The 1792 Catalogue of the Parishes of the Munkács Greek Catholic
Diocese], (Nyíregyháza, 1994), 52.
38 I. Udvari, ed., A munkácsi gör. kat. püspökség lelkészségeinek 1806. évi összeírása [The
1806 Register of the Parishes of the Greek Catholic Bishopric at Munkács], Vasvári Pál
Társaság füzetei 3, (Nyíregyháza, 1900), 100.
39 EFL Arch. Nov. 3412.
40 Ibid., 3418.
41 Bendász and Koi, 54.
42 EFL Arch. Nov. 3412.
43 Bendász and Koi, 52.
44 I. Udvari, 100.
45 EFL Arch. Nov. 3412.
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