A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 24. 1997 (Debrecen, 1997)
Tanulmányok - Módy György: Zám és monostora a falu első elnéptelenedéséig
Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár Évkönyve XXIV 23 sen beleolvadt - népes falu földesura. A jövő kutatás feladata, hogy Zám 1405-1542 közötti történetét teljesen feltárja. Kilenc évtized után még most is meg kellene próbálni Zoltai zárni feltárási helyén hitelesítő ásatást végezni, az északi sekrestye-kápolna vagy a kolostorépület maradványait fellelni. ZÁM AND ITS MONASTERY UNTIL THE FIRST DEPOPULATION OF THE VILLAGE György Módy In Volume XXIII of the Almanac of Hajdú-Bihar County Archives the author dealt with the village, name-giver of the one-time Ohat-puszta of the City of Debrecen, its proprietors and the monastery which existed as early as the 12th century. Another village, name-giver of another puszta in Hortobágy, Zám was, in the author’s opinion, the first Szabolcs-County domain of the Káta clan. It was there that, in honour of the Holy Cross, their monastery was built. The name of its abbot is mentioned in documents from 1220. The foundations of the church, built in the 12th century with semicircular chancel and demonstrably northward-looking vestry and chapel was explored in 1907-1908 by Lajos Zoltai. The majority of researchers dealing with the Árpádian-age clans located the first settlements of the Káta clan between the rivers Zagyva and Tápió. However, we have no data about a monastery in this area. Thus, the majority of the clan's members with early documentation were associated with the line called Zámmonostori. Several members belonging to this line sold Zám to Dózsa of Debrecen in 1297, however, the document related to this contract does not separately mention the monastery. The author demonstrates that the proprietor of Zám and the monastery was Benedek of Zám and that the wife of Dózsa’s uncle, Rofoin-Ban, founder of the Debrecen manor, was Katalin, daughter of Rafael, who presumably came from one of the Szatmár lines of the Káta clan. In 1340 members of families descending from three sub-lines of the Káta clan, whose ancestors did not agree to selling Zámmonostora, initiated joint legal proceedings against Dózsa’s sons. In the end, in 1343 Jakab and Pál of Debrecen surrendered the northern half of the village of Zám to the plaintiffs, and shared with them the patronage over the monastery. We have no data whether any member of the successful Káta clan ever lived at Zám. Even the son of Benedek, who resided at Zám in 1271, lived in Ősi, near Várad. The monastery is made no mention of after 1343. There are still data about the partial esate at Zám in 1374, but after the maleline extinction of the proprietory family, Zám is missing from the property- assessment documents just as Debrecen and its manor from the deed of gift to the Serb Prince István Lazarevics in 1411. In 1453 Zám and its northern and southern neighbours, the Árpádian-age villages Csécs and Szabolcs were donated by the king, as depopulated farmsteads in part to István of Bajon and in part to the Gecsei family.
