Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 29. (2001)

A BUDAI KIRÁLYI VÁR ÉS A VÁRNEGYED EGYHÁZTÖRTÉNETI SZEREPE - Schwarcz Katalin: Mária Terézia látogatása a budai klarisszáknál 1751. augusztus 8-án. Függelék: Budai klarissza főnöknők és helyetteseik (1740-1751) 135-160

KATALIN SCHWARCZ MARIA THERESA

'S VISIT TO THE CLARISSAN ORDER IN BUDA ON 8 A UGUST

1751 Summary The events of Maria Theresa's visit to Pest-Buda were widely discussed by the contemporary Viennese press. During her research in Vienna, Erzsébet Hanskarl (1905—), librarian at the Municipal Library, studied the first 50 volumes (1703-1752) of the Wiennerisches Diarium, collected and published any news relevant to Buda and Pest. The Queen and her husband, Francis of Lorraine, were visiting the country's former capital for the first time. Their imperial and royal highnesses arrived aboard 20 ships on the Danube at 9 p.m. on 4 August 1751. They spent the first 4 days in Pest, and crossed the river to Buda on 8 August. They first entered Buda's Halászváros (Fishermen's Town), passed Rácváros (Serbian Town), and visited Kéményseprő (Chimneysweep) Chapel (today's Krisztinaváros church). The procession entered Buda Castle through the Vienna Gate. The royal couple then visited the construction site of the Royal Palace. They went to Sunday mass in the Jesuit church, after which the Queen visited the Clarissan convent. This paper gives a summary overview of the Clarissan order's history. The following towns in mediaeval Hungary had Clarissan convents: Nagyszombat (1240-1782), Bratislava (formerly Pozsony; 1279-1782), Óbuda (1334-1541), Oradea (formerly Várad; 1338-1566), Sárospatak (formerly Patak; 1390-1566), and Cluj (formerly Kolozsvár; early 15th century-1566). Clarissan nuns in the Middle Ages in Hungary adhered to the Rule of Pope Urban. They live in flourishing convents with lands. Of all the nunneries in mediaeval Hungary only the Clarissans survived the Ottoman era and the spread of Protestantism. The Dominican convents perished, as did the once thriving Premonstratensian nunneries, and the houses of the tertiary mendicants. In 1714, headed by Mother Superior Countess Éva Franciska Csáky, eight Clarissan nuns from Pozsony moved to Buda. They moved partly because they had all originally come from Óbuda, and also the Neoaquistica Comissio (New Acquisitions Committee) decided they should live closer to their estates. It soon became plain to them that they could not return to Óbuda, so in 1718 they bought three houses from Reuter's heirs, and built their own convent and church. Countess Éva Franciska Csáky resigned in 1720, and devoted herself entirely to founding the Clarissan convent in Pest. In the 1730s conditions improved for the Buda Clarissans' estates—a town and fourteen villages in four counties. Their incomes from villein services increased significantly. Nevertheless, construction went on for a very long time, and cost the Clarissans, according to records dating from 1770,250,873 forints. Published for the first time in this paper is the 25 clauses of the Hungarianlanguage Clarissan Rules (a copy of the 1635 Rules) on which life in their convents was founded. Like other monastics, the Buda Clarissans had the history of their convent —

as recalled by Mother Superior Antónia Jakobina Peck

— recorded in the Protocollum in 1748. Clarissan Mother Superiors were elected every three years: Brigitta Orechoczy (1740-1743), Klára Sauttermeister (1743-1746), Antónia Peck (1746-1749), and Jozefa Schad (1749-1751). When Maria Theresa visited the Pest and Buda Clarissans she was not only doing her protocol duties, but also observing a tradition her predecessors' had established. Austrian empresses and the Pozsony Clarissan had always been on excellent terms during the 17th century. The Clarissan church in Buda was probably built by the Carmelite monk architect Athanasius Wittwer. The new church was consecrated on 22 September 1748 by the Archbishop of Kalocsa, Miklós Csáky, who dedicating it to "The Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary." The queen learned during her visit that only Clarissans-to-be were educated at the convent: it did not provide education for women in general. When the order was irrevocably dissolved in 1782,13 of the nuns who had met the queen in 1751 were still alive.