Huszár Zoltán (szerk.): Kereszténység és államiság Baranyában (Pécs, 2000)
Tartalom
[oipop jo jkE míLLenníum catalogue of jhE „сЦск AND SJAJEkOOD ÍN BARANYA COUNTY" E^iBijiON At Christmas in the year 1000 King István had himself crowned with the crown presented to him by Pope Silvester II. It is the millennium of that event that we are celebrating in this year. Even if we are not entirely sure of what the crown used for the ritual looked like, the present Holy Crown acts as a living symbol of this historic event. In just the same way as countries today cannot achieve independence without the approval of great Powers, at that time it was impossible for a country to gain sovereignty without the permission of the Pope. The crown, as a symbol of independence, at the very least displayed papal patronage. This becomes even more evident in the catalogue prepared for the opening of the Pécsvárad Millennium Exhibition. According to historical evidence, it was the Pécsvárad Benedictine Abbot, Asztrik, whom István sent to the Pope in order to receive independence and a crown. Dwellers of Baranya can be justly proud of this. Christianity was not at that time unknown in the territory of Pannonia, a fact that is borne out by the crypts situated underground the Pécs Basilica. The Roman brick in the custody of the Szekszárd Museum dates from the same period as the crypts. The Roman brick discovered on the outskirts of Kisdorog has the name and figure of Bishop Arius engraved into it, proof that Arian Christianity existed in Southern Tolna. I should also like to mention that the Bishop of Salzburg consecrated a Pécs church in the year 857. Not only Pécs's original Slav name, but also its Latin version Quinque ecclesiae and the German variant Fünfkirchen all bear the root number 5, referring to the five martyrs in whose honour the five churches of the city were built. The event now being celebrated - the coronation of Saint Stephen - did not take place without Christian preliminaries, either, for it was precisely our region which was to take up the Western, Latin Christianity. A knowledge of the background of events reflecting the reality of all this can be sensed in the Pécsvárad Exhibition. However, the Exhibition does not remain in the past, but points toward the future. It displays István's values and heritage, and examines how that heritage is a life-giving foundation of those values. The architectural remains featured in the exhibition and the catalogue, the photographic evidence of statehood, the adopted tradition of viticulture, all display the spiritual values of the past, and beyond the spectacle intellectual and spiritual values are seen to be carried along. The exhibition and the catalogue lead us to that internal wealth. The millennium, through this exhibition, transports the values of the past into the present in order to mould a future. I offer my thanks to the organizers and to Pécsvárad that they have, by accepting the past, filled the future with hope. Pécs, 2000, on the Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mihály Mayer, Bishop of Pécs
