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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: Brief History of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the Territories South of the Carpathians.
In the second half of the 18th century, but especially in the first half of the 19th century a large-scale migration of the Hungarians began into Wallachia, which at first had political causes, but later it was due to social as well as political factors. The Hungarian professional workers, manufacturers, traders, intellectuals or unskilled workers who sought better living conditions were forced to migrate by the aforementioned factors.
In the first decades of the 19th century a movement of piety began among the European Protestant communities, which was aimed at discovering and reincorporating into the church those believers, who were separated from it due to objective or subjective reasons. The ascending interest of the Hungarian Reformed Church for the congregations beyond the Carpathians may also be attributed to this movement. As the Reformed church from Romania was geographically closest to Transylvania, these territories belonged to the Transylvanian Supreme Consistory.
As opposed to the German mission, Hungarian mission had a national dimension as well. It was meant to bring redemption to the Hungarians living in Romania, whose language and faith differed from that of the Orthodox Romanians. Economic and social life in Romania began to develop after the war of independence in 1877. The number of Hungarian families – especially from Transylvania –, which have crossed the Carpathians increased significantly.
In late 1863, under Czelder’s guidance and with the money raised by him, the school and the church from Ploieşti were also completed. He then sought a vicar for this community, so that he could personally move on and tend to the needs of the communities from Brăila, Galaţi, Piteşti and Călăraşi.
A report about the Hungarian Reformed Church in Romania indicates that the Hungarian Reformed communities enjoyed full autonomy with regard to the Romanian establishment, in what concerned both language and ritual. Even if these communities were plagued by financial problems, they still enjoyed complete spiritual and religious freedom.
In the interwar period the number of Reformed believers settling down in the Romanian capital multiplied again.
In 1948 the Reformed school in Bucharest was nationalized along with all other religious and private schools. In 1950, from one day to another the state confiscated the house in the Luterana Street, which was home to the priest, the church bell-ringer and their families as well as the church offices.
The Reformed diocese of Transylvania reorganized the mission of the territories beyond the Carpathians. A new missionary parish-circle was established with its center in Galaţi, also enclosing Brăila. It was the duty of the priest in Ploieşti to seek Reformed believers in Craiova, Târgu Jiu, Motru, Drobeta Turnu Severin, Piteşti and Alexandria and to hold services for them.
Keywords: Wallachia, reincorporating into the church, the mission, beyond the Carpathians
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