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

a priest from Eger, In the middle of the 18th century he had a chapel built to Wendelinus in the vicinity of Füzesabony (county Heves) and he also consecrated bells in honour of the patron against cattle-pestilence in several cases. The eastern Palots shepherds also celebrate the day of „Saint Wendelinus". They do not work on this day but attend the service to Wendelinus held in the church. According to tradition, the day of Wendelinus is a votive feast in commemoration of the end of the plagve on that day. Wendelinus relics in eastern Hungary characteristically portray Saint Wendelinus as a Hungarian shepherd in comteporary dress, in a „Hungarized" way: his face with a moustache, in folk character, with greasy hair, a shepherd's hat, with sheepskin- or felt- coat (Pelz- or Filzmantel) on his back and calabash or flask and bag at his side, shepherd's crook, the sign of his job in his hand and sheep at his feet. Such primitive statues of Wendelinus, bearing the folk spirit, stand on the edges of villages in the counties of Heves and Nógrád, among the Palots people, and somewhat more south in Jazygia and in Little Cumania, on the Great Hungarian Plain. The statues are colour-painted, which is general for the roadside statues of other saints, too (eg. Saint John of Nepomuk). One cannot encounter portrays of such a character in the Transdanubium since his figure is represented there in peasant's wear form the Rhineland or in church baroque or rococo-style, due to the influence of German colonists. He usually holds in his hands a shepherd's crook or a sheep-hook, and in some cases a weed-hook. In a village in the north of Hungary (Hercegkút, county of Zemplén) he is also believed to have been a herdsman cleaning the pasture and holding a weed-hook in his hand. The most outstanding folk relics of the cult of Wendelin have been preserved, however, in Jazygi (county Szolnok), lyng in the northwestern corner of the Great Hungarian Plain. The inhabitants of this region, the Jazygians are a Hungarized ethnic group of Persian origin. Jazygia is located on the bordering area of two important geographical regions of eastern Hungary. This has always been a determining factor in the formation of its folk culture. On one hand it is in contact with northeastern Hungary, with the Palots, poople, being connected to them through migrational links since the 18th century, and, on the other hand, it is part of the Great Hungarian Plain which occupies most of the eastern half of Hungary. Following the spread of the veneration of Saint Wendelinus we can also observe that the cult, starting from Northeastern-Hungary, 141