Dénesi Tamás (szerk.): Collectanea Sancti Martini - A Pannonhalmi Főapátság Gyűjteményeinek Értesítője 6. (Pannonhalma, 2018)

I.Tanulmányok

A pannonhalmi bencések és az 1945-ös földreform 85

Varga Zsuzsanna (2015), Földreformok a II. világháború után Közép– és Kelet–

Euró pában, Történelmi Szemle, 57/4, 583–605.

Fülöp Kisnémet OSB

The Benedictines of Pannonhalma and the Agrarian Reform of 1945

The Provisional National Government approved the decree of 600/1945 on 17 March 1945 terminating the system of latifundium and regulating land distribution. In the middle of the 20th

century, the Catholic Church was still one of the greatest landowners in Hungary, however, almost 90% of the Church’s estates was secularized without compensation when the decree was put into effect. Among the ecclesiastical beneficiaries, the Benedictine Order was the most significant religious owner, thus, the Order was understandably hard hit by land distribution – in a few months, the Order lost the financial basis of its institutions’ maintenance, since ecclesiastical estates had the character of trust. The present paper examines the way the decree was put into effect in the life of the Arch-Abbey of Pannonhalma, and in the operation of the parishes and local ministries related to the Arch-Abbey, respectively. On the one hand, the activities initiated from the Order’s centre are summed up – especially Arch-Abbot Krizosztom Kelemen’s unyielding work –, and on the other hand, based on parish reminiscences and documents, a survey is provided considering local events how everyday life was influenced by land distribution. The present research makes use of Éva

Mária Fülöp’s works of economic history, and discovers the hitherto disregarded groups of sources of the Arch-Abbey’s Archives in Pannonhalma: documents related to the Arch-Abbot, the head manager of the estates, the chief auditor, and the public attorney, the minutes of conventual meetings, and reports of parish history (Historia domus).