Dénesi Tamás (szerk.): Collectanea Sancti Martini - A Pannonhalmi Főapátság Gyűjteményeinek Értesítője 3. (Pannonhalma, 2015)
II.Közlemények
162 TAKÁCS LÁSZLÓ: KÉT SOPRONI BENCÉS VISZONTAGSÁGOS UTAZÁSA 1820-BAN László Takács The Eventful Journey of Two Benedictines of Sopron in 1820 The Benedictine Order had pursued extensive education since the beginning of the 19th century with one of the natural consequences, namely, that the monks obtained teachers’ qualifications, too, and in general, they steadily went on teaching in their schools (Sopron, Győr, Komárom, etc.). The Library of the Archabbey in Pannonhalma has an abundant collection of manuscripts from this period providing a true view of the Benedictine teachers’ substantial preparation in their subjects. In addition to the various lecture notes and educational study aids of sciences and history, a separate group was formed by the posthumous papers of those Benedictine fathers, who – besides their activity as teachers of grammar, rhetoric and Latin, making use of their training in literature and language – wrote poems, as well, in Latin. Out of the many Benedictines writing poems in Latin in the Enlightenment and the Reform Era, Bernardin Takács (1796–1859) stands out on the reasonable grounds of his collected poems published with the title of Carmina selecta by another Benedictine monk, Cézár Vagács (1817–1878) in Komárom well after his death in 1866. This volume of poems in Latin contains poems of various genres – hymns, odes, ele gies, songs – among which there is a travelogue in distich outstanding both in length and content. This poem records an eventful journey to Bécsújhely (Wiener Neustadt) in 1820. This poem of many hundreds of lines including Horatian and Ovidian motifs and composed of abundant classical allusions tells the story of a journey from Sopron to Bécsújhely made by Bernardin Takács and his confrère in the Ordere and at school in teaching, Mátyás Szolár (1790–1842) in the October school holidays to visit the latest sights of the rapidly developing town. However, coping with the distance of approximately forty kilometres was far from being an easy task: seemingly, the Benedictine fathers – not wellversed in mundane affairs – chose the wrong time for the start, that is, they ordered the waggoner (not too promising for the first sight) and his two nags too late. During the journey, the worst dreams of the two Benedictines came true: darkness overtook them, they got soaking wet in rain, the waggoner lost his way, the waggon overturned, and so on. Despite all the events and unexpected troubles, after the first reactions of despair, the fathers accepted the series of happenings mainly with joviality and friendly disposition while decorating themselves, their journey and the world around them with mythic and classical similes. Besides all the eventful affairs, the journey came to a happy ending: the villagers helped and supported them everywhere, thus they reached Bécsújhely. However, not the novelties (since, unfortunately, a fire destructed almost the whole town of that time a few years later) but the historic monuments entranced them: the memory of Rákóczi’s captivity and that of the executed victims of the Wesselényi-conspiracy. After all the troubles, the journey became a national pilgrimage.
