Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1958-10-01 / 10. szám
14 FRATERNITY ing gained a doctorate at Padua in Italy, he turned to become a Franciscan monk. In 1526 he was granted a living at Sárospatak, then was present at Mohács in that year as a chaplain in the field, but managed to escape from the rout. It is in the year 1544 that we have the first sure facts about him; then we find him gathering into the fold with apostolic zeal poor scattered groups of his people living under the heel of the conqueror, and preaching to them the Word of life. He himself records that he founded 120 congregations. We can only imagine the trials and difficulties Sztárai must have had to face and overcome in the building up of 120 churches. He must have met not only priestly opposition, but just as strong opposition arising from the ignorance of the peasantry. To meet the needs of such simple minds we find from his writings that he expounded his message in rich, bold, popular language, the phrases of which fall like sledge-hammer blows even today, so that they must have sounded irresistible to his hearers of the sixteenth century. No wonder then that the wrath of the Roman priests was always turned on Sztárai. There is the story told of him in later years that he never stepped out of his front-door after dark without first pushing a pumpkin on a stick in front of him. Again and again the pumpkin was struck to the ground, split in two, instead of Sztárai’s head. Sztárai won his people’s heart, first, by means of hymns which he himself composed and set to music of his own composition and then which he himself taught in the villages where he worked; second, by making use of religious drama; and, third, by founding schools wherever he went. It is interesting to learn that the peasants were moved to respond emotionally to the Gospel when they witnessed a play on a stage erected in the square of their own village. Like Dévai, Sztárai was conservative theologically and inclined to the teachings of Luther rather than to the Swiss Reformers, though he, too, went his own way, while the influence of
