012012 - Prešovská univerzita v Prešove

Baán István
A Parish in Miskolc during the First Half
of the Eighteenth Century
Until the twentieth century Greek Catholics hardly seem to be present
in the life of Miskolc. The Greek merchants and their wealthy Orthodox
parish understandably attracted the attention of the town to the rich
cultural and religious heritage of Byzantium. At the same time the much
less financially well-off Greek Catholics, whose number was steadily
approaching that of the Orthodox, were unable to gain a firm foothold in
the society of Miskolc. According to the local religious histories, the Greek
Catholics had been trying to establish a parish since the late eighteenth
century, but they only succeeded in these efforts in 1900. 20 Before that
time Greek Catholic ecclesiastical life in Miskolc was under the jurisdiction
of the parish at nearby Görömböly. Nevertheless some newly unearthed
documents indicate that we should reconsider this matter.
On 9 June 1769 a canonical visitation was held under the leadership
of Count Ignác Batthyány, Canon of Eger and Abbot of Ják, in Mindszent
parish and its affiliated churches. The learned prelate, later Bishop of
Csanád and the first publisher of Saint Gellért’s Deliberatio, noted in the
records that the Greek Catholic priest of Görömböly was called István
Ternai. The then sixty-four year-old Ternai had been born around 1705 and
had come from Mikóháza. His knowledge approximated the requirements
of the age, or perhaps somewhat exceeded them. In his youth he had
studied one year of moral theology in the episcopal monastic school at
Munkács and knew Latin, Ruthenian and Hungarian. In 1736 he had been
consecrated a priest by Simon Olsavszky, the Bishop of Munkács and was
assigned to the parish of Miskolc. Ternai was not the first priest of the
Miskolc parish, for Batthyány also noted that he had succeeded his father
in the position. In short the elder István Ternai must have been the parish
priest at Miskolc during the years before 1736. 21 In accordance with the
custom of the time the future priest would spend several years as a cantor in
a parish, while he acquired the practical knowledge for serving as a priest.
When the novice was the son of a priest, it was natural for him to spend
these years working with his father. Afterwards he was examined by the
bishop. In the examination the future priest needed to demonstrate that
he was familiar with the practices and ceremonies of the priesthood. Only
then could he be consecrated a priest. 22 The fact that Ternai spent a year
20 A. Schirilla, “A Görög Katholikus Egyház” [The Greek Catholic Church], in Miskolc,
Magyar városok monográfiái [Miskolc: Monographs of Hungarian Towns], vol. 5
(Budapest, 1942), 188-189.
21 EFL, Arch. Nov. No. 3418: Canonica visitatio Districtus superior Borsodiensis 1767-1769.
22 J. B. Damjanovics, “A munkácsi egyházmegye papjainak és kántorjainak szellemi élete
a 16-18. században” [The Intellectual Life of the Priests and Cantors of the Munkács
16