012012 - Prešovská univerzita v Prešove

Baán István
monasteries, and at the same time they served as important disseminators of
Greek manuscripts and publications, which is indicated by the eighteenthcentury
library of György Zavírasz and a Miskolc hymn-book. 13
The Limitations on Orthodox Religious Practice
The second factor probably proved to be the more important one.
According to the canonical visitation there is a Greek monk, Leontinos
pope, who is fifty-six years old. He is called a caloyer [or a monk]. 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 parochial priest. 14
From this it seems obvious that the scope of the orthodox clergyman
was severely limited due to fear of increasing the number of the Orthodox;
he could not even baptize children without permission. (In the view of
eighteenth-century contemporaries a child automatically became a member
of the church in which he was baptized.) It is most unlikely that until 1760
not a single Greek child was born in Miskolc. It remains much more likely
that the children born there were taken elsewhere to be baptized. Just
as the Greeks’ marriage ceremonies were also performed at Eger, Pest,
Buda, Szentendre, Pentele, Karlóca, or in the territory occupied by the
Turks. The first orthodox wedding at Miskolc was held on 12 January
1763. Only the registry of deaths shows that in at least this sphere the
Catholic clergyman was more flexible. Thus, as far as the outside world
was concerned the orthodox priest at Miskolc above all performed burials.
It is obvious that under these external pressures not many would accept
a permanent appointment as orthodox parochial priest at Miskolc.
The possibility exists that orthodox clergymen not mentioned in the
registers also worked at Miskolc because for a number of years we have
no records of any funerals. The name of Caloyer Leontinos did not survive
in the Miskolc registers but comes from a Catholic parochial visitation
record. Beginning with 4 February 1756 Miskolc enjoyed the services
of a permanently assigned priest in the person of Pope Michail. The
permanently based clergyman’s title from this point on was either the
Chaplain of St. Naum, or the Parochial Priest of St. Naum, or in the case of
Harisios Sakellios, the Priest of St. Naum. The title of chaplain, however,
should not be understood as designating an assistant clergyman, rather it
13 J. Damjanovics, “A magyarországi görög liturgikus zenei élete a XVIII. században” [The
Life of Greek Liturgical Music in Hungary during the Eighteenth Century] in Az ortodoxia
története Magyarországon a XVIII. századig [The History of Orthodoxy in Hungary to
the Eighteenth Century], ed. H. I. Tóth (Szeged, 1995), 107; see also M. D. Peyfuss.
14 EFL Arch. Nov. 3412. Can. vis. 1746, 110.
14