Gulyás Éva: Egy őszi pásztorünnep és európai párhuzamai: Adatok a Vendel-kultusz magyarországi kutatásához – Szolnok megyei múzeumok közleményei 42. (1986)

The popularity of the cult in Hungary is shown by the frequency of the name Wendelin in old Hungarian herdsman-families. I have investigatied records in the Office of Registrary in Jászberény in order to demonstrate this. At the beginning of the 19th century this name was rare, but at the end of the century more and more children were given this name. Christening by this name was motivated first by the veneration to Wendelinus, but its later popularity is related to the custom of the child's being given the name of his parent. Otherwise it is frequent as a family name all voer the country, too. In many places streets have been named after Saint Wendelin, mainly where earlier statues had been erected to him. Finally let us summarize what factors effected the introduction of the cult of Wendelinus in Hungary, and to what degree this tradition of German origin, spreading late in the country, became part of the Hungarian folk culture, and how much it assimilated. In the spread of the Wendelinus cult in Hungary an important role was played by South-German colonists from Rhineland, having immigrated after the Turkish occupation and in the time of the Rákóczi liberation movement (1711) at the beginning of the 18th century, to the devastated areas of Hungary. German people were settled mainly in some parts of the Transdanubium, but colonizations were not negligible in Southeastern-Hungary and in the Plains either. Another significant factor was the spread of merino-sheep in the second half of the 18th century and the German herdsman arriving with them. German shepherds, masters of the new kind, were invited to the farms in the Transdanubium. One of their centres was Székesfehérvár with its surroundings, the Mezőföld. Essentially we agree with Sándor Bálint in emphasizing that Saint Wendelinus was a characteristic patron of the Geramn peasant colonization in Hungary in the 18th century, and also their sysmbolic companion. The introduction of the cult of Wendelinus was also supported by the catholic church and by the baroque culture. A significant role was played in this by Márton Biró of Padány, priest of Veszprém, who wrote and translated the biography of the Saint into Hungarian. It was the first biography of the Saint in Hungarian, with the title: Short resume of the life of the confessor Saint Wendelinus, published in Kassa in 1763. In his estate near Sümeg he had a chapel sanctified in honour of Wendelinus and the led the procession of the diocese there on the 20th of October 1755 in order to ward off the great cattle-plague. 146