A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 2007 (Debrecen, 2008)

Történettudomány és művelődéstörténet - Surányi Béla: A bencések és a magyar agrárkultúra

Béla Surányi THE BENEDICITINE ORDER AND HUNGARIAN AGRICULTURE The Benedictine monastic order is the oldest organised Christian community. Along with the spreading of the Christian faith, it also created spiritual and material culture in Europe. Having been incorporated into Hungarian culture and taking national characteristics into consideration, itformed the European identity ofthe population ofthe Carpathian Basin. The Benedictine ordertook root in Hungary during the reign ofthe statefounding king St. Stephen. Apartfrom the people of England, no other nation owes so much to the Benedictines as the people of Hungary. In later centuries the Cistercian and Premonstratensian orders appeared, showing a universal devotion to Christian faith and culture. However, since its foundation by St. Benedict until the 12

th century it was the Benedictine order alone that promoted modernisation and familiarised the emerging nations of Europe with the cultivation ofthe land and animal farming. Surviving estate statistics reveal the role of Benedictines in agriculture. Agricultural production aimed at self-sufficiency until the beginning of urbanisation, commerce and money economy. However, as commodity production was gaining ground, Benedictines adopted a different economic viewpoint. Monastery gardens gained outstanding importance, both preserving the heritage of antique crop growing and functioning as healing centres until the birth of lay medicine. They also passed on the values of ancient gardening culture to the gardening peasantry of medieval and modern times. Gardening in the broad sense included fruit gardening and viticulture as well. The Benedictines established a rich viticultural tradition; they have gone down in history also for spreading wine growing and making. Benedictine and other monastic estates were the agricultural centres of their times serving as agricultural schools and research stations. In the Middle Ages there were 181 Benedictine communities in the Carpathian Basin in a relatively even geographical distribution, apart from the peripheral regions. The economic crisis of feudalism also affected the Benedictine order and its spirituality in Hungary. The Cluny reform provided only a short-term solution to the accumulated problems. Later, the 150 years of Turkish occupation caused a rupture and considerable decline in the activity of Hungarian monasteries. That was when the Benedictine order became a "Transdanubian order". Moreover, the order was to face dissolution in 1786 and restoration in 1802. The period after the Turkish occupation did not immediately bring about a favourable change, either. The order's property was taken over by foreign abbeys for management. Simultaneously, at the time ofthe Catholic Revival their leading and pathfinder role was taken over by Jesuits and Piarists. Nevertheless, the 18

th century was a time of economic revival also for the Benedictine order. There are already ample data available on Benedictine agriculture from that century. By that time it was only well-organised production and the application of some elements of "new agriculture" that Benedictine farming excelled in. With capitalist economy evolving in the 19

th century, the order's production shifted towards an intensive direction with wine growing, wine making and more intensive animal farming. They fought a successful battle against Phylloxera and thus renewed their wine culture. Monastic estates were managed efficiently by agriculturally trained monks. Although World War I and the Treaty of Trianon with their economic consequences had a negative influence on the order, Benedictine agricultural records in the 1930s and 40s gave accounts of well-organised and high-quality production. Wine growing continued to dominate, providing a decent income for the order. After 1945 some dramatic changes took place. The church was deprived of its land and even teaching was stopped in church schools for a few years. After the political transformation in the 1990s, wine culture, herb growing and processing have revived to a moderate extent. Benedictine cultural heritage has become an "officially" acknowledged part of Hungarian national tradition again.