Calvin Synod Herald, 1990 (90. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)
1990-05-01 / 3. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 6 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Sárospatak Academy ... a legacy of Protestant Reform Virtually every day, we are hearing incredible news from Eastern Europe as the people there discover and reclaim their rights to democracy. Few of us may realize the ancient ties that we all share with these people and how much they need and want our help. Sárospatak, Hungary is located at the center of this new reform. Early in the Great Reformation, the Magyar people who settled the area surrounding Sárospatak became converts to Protestantism. In those years, they were called “Evangelicals” or. a little later “Reformed”. Some years later, the term “Reformed” came to specifically indicate those people who accepted the teachings of John Calvin. In 1531, the Magyar people established their own school... the second Protestant academy to be founded in Europe. The Academy was, and still is, located in Sárospatak, a small town just south of the Czechoslovakian border and just west of Romania... once a part of the independent state of Transylvania. George Rákóczi I and his wife, Susanna Lorántffy (George was to become the Prince of Transylvania), took the young Academy under their wing, endowed it with lands and truly established the school as a leading center of Calvinist culture and learning. About 1650, John Amos Comenius, who has been called the most famous educator of all time, came to the school and established a reputation for the Academy that has stood for many centuries. During the Counter-Reformation, the school and its ministers suffered greatly... a group of them were kidnapped and sold as Spanish galley slaves. Only the intervention of the Dutch navy could rescue these men whose Christian commitment is still commemorated at Sárospatak. In 1781, the Edict of Toleration finally allowed the school to return to regular operation. Shortly thereafter, the school enrolled its most famous student, Louis Kossuth. After leading an unsuccessful revolt against the Austrian rule, that was saved by the intervention of the Russian armies in 1849, he was exiled and spent some time in the United States, where he made many speeches on behalf of his Protestant countrymen. Even today, his statue stands in New York as well as in Cleveland. When religious freedom was finally achieved, the Academy at Sárospatak flourished, establishing a Classical Gimnasium, an English College, Teachers’ Institute and a Theological Seminary. In 1944, the country was overrun by the Nazi armies of Adolf Hitler, only later to be “liberated” by the marauding Russian armies. This disastrous period for Hungary and Sárospatak was tragic beyond description. The agreements at Potsdam and, later, Yalta, placed Hungary unwillingly behind the “Iron Curtain” and it was only a few years later, in 1951, that the State nationalized over 1300 Christian schools in the country. The ancient and venerable Sárospatak Academy was relegated to local high school status with a typical Marxist doctrine. Recently, the government of Hungary has agreed to return Sárospatak to its rightful owner. This historic event will take place in July of 1990, provided the church can fund the restoration and operation of the school. Current events have made this challenge even more exciting. The emerging democracies of Eastern Europe are opening their borders and allowing people to travel more freely. Once again, Sárospatak can hope to draw students from all over Eastern Europe. The Friends of Sárospatak A group of concerned and dedicated Christians have come together to form and organization to raise funds and help restore the Sárospatak Academy to its former purpose. The Hungarian Reformed Federation of America joined wholeheartedly in the noble effort. So did The William Penn Association in an effort to help reestablish the ancient college at Sárospatak, Hungary, as a church-run school. A movement to return the school to the Reformed Church of Hungary took root in Hungary last year as political changes occured in the country and Eastern Europe. Organizers of the effort hope to reopen the Sárospatak Reformed Academy and Theological Seminary sometime this year, thus endind 39 years of government control of the school. * * * Among the friends of Sárospatak from among non-Hungarians — the (Continued on Fage 8)
