Kalla Zsuzsa: Beszélő tárgyak. A Petőfi család relikviái (Budapest, 2006)

Zsuzsa Kalla: The history of the Petőfi relics

‘Only a symbol, because Petőfi shall live forever through his works. Religion also has its own writ- ten doctrine, yet there is still a need for churches and symbols which have a constant suggestive effect even on those who rarely seek refuge in religion’s comforting embrace. Such an effect is expected from the Petőfi House.’ (Kéry 1911, A 23)

A saint’s deeds, personality, and life on earth were preserved and given recognisable characteristics hy legend, giving believers a vast array from which to choose. Within Christianity believers became members of small communities of ideas through pilgrimage and rituals associated with relics, since they prayed to a chosen mediator or saint according to their profession, situation, home, illness or desires. In the case of the Petőfi relics, the purpose of the act of viewing, as we will see later on, was to strengthen the feeling of national community.

One characteristic of medieval relics is particularly important when considering the Petőfi relics: most of them are associated with the death, funeral and grave of a saint who was often a martyr. The most famous and valuable relics are connected with the Passion — pieces of the crown of thorns, the funeral shroud, the holy cross and the nails - and in the case of Petőfi, there are a remarkable number of memorabilia from the last months and last journey of his life. The road to death as a symbol of transition has always held a great fascination for man, and among the Petőfi relics this is represented by the chair in which Soma Orlay Petries painted Petőfi in Mezőberény. This chair became part of the collection and was accompanied by a tragic note: ‘old chair from 1709, in which Orlay painted Petőfi two weeks before the poet’s death’ (A Petőfi-Ház 1916). In the Petőfi Literary Museum’s current exhibition the ride to death is symbolised by a chaise longue which belonged to Gábor Egressy, actor and friend of Petőfi. It was put on top of the carriage and was the sofa on which ‘Petőfi, his wife and son travelled to Transylvania where, leaving his family in Torda, the poet hurried to the battlefield’ (ibid.).

The 18th and 19th centuries saw an increasing separation between the sacred and the profane, and it was when the latter gained prominence that secular relics appeared. With the spread of French Revolution ideology, the concept of ‘nation’ became more important than belonging to a religious community. The change was made: the saint was replaced by a national hero or someone even more

suited to represent language and culture - an artist — someone who, after death, was glorified and reached superhuman heights. The objects that were associated with and represented this person symbolised an idea, and devotees became members of an invisible spiritual community (Dávidházi 1989).

A writer, in the eyes of his admirers, is the person who conveys divine utterances; he is a person who is in contact with something superior and incomprehensible. Zoltán Ferenczi, Petőfi scholar and collector, writes in his analysis Egy gondolat bánt engem... [I’m Troubled by One Thought...] ‘There is still something unknown, something we do not understand. Compared to [Petofi’s], our feelings seem, and probably are, ordinary; our decisions waver, they are timid; they are, in short, those of average men. If we cannot come to know a hero or genius fully, to the depths of his soul and his great resoluteness, then let us be thrilled by the heroic deed itself.

‘Thinking about his love and happiness and all that was, in his eyes, life’s greatest salvation, thinking about him leaving all that he so worried about and so hoped for simply to run towards danger and death like an intrepid sacrifice for country, freedom and humanity, let our hearts be filled with the true warmth of fervour. He, who was a wonderful example for all times, sacrificed for his country and nation in the name of a great ideal not only his life but, as he promised, the love he had always yearned for. Before him and before his memory, let

The Petőfi House seen from Bajza utca

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