Liszka József (szerk.): Az Etnológiai Központ Évkönyve 2008-2009 - Acta Ethnologica Danubiana 10-11. (Dunaszerdahely-Komárno, 2009)

Tanulmányok - Bárth Dániel: A nyugati és a keleti kereszténység határá. Vallási együttélés és konfliktusok a dél-magyarországi Bácskában a 18. században (Összefoglalás)

counsellors three were also Roman Catholic and one was Orthodox. The members of the municipal council were different people year by year. When the magistrate was Roman Catholic, the number of Orthodox counsellors got doubled. The supervisors were contented to see that in this way the Catholic majority was guaranteed in town management. Nevertheless, this system included the possibility of conflicts as well, or rather, the possibility of interpreting each controversial issue on a religious ground. It can be observed in comments such as: the Orthodox magistrate put the lay clerk of the Roman Catholic Church in the stocks for some unimportant remarks and he kept him there for over a whole night (Bárth 2003).

I have been carrying out investigations related to the 18th century religious practice in this region for more then ten years. 1 have applied the methods of micro-history and historical anthropology. My research is based upon primarily ecclesiastical and to a lesser extent state administrative sources. This rather brief presentation inevitably can account for only the surface of these investigations. I must remark that according to my experiences this topic calls for further decade-long research. 1 am deeply convinced that this historical research may promote our understanding of the recent past chaotic relations of this region.

The period under survey was a relatively peaceful one. The co-existence naturally brought about conflicts and mutual effects. But the conflicts in the 18th century were not large-scale. On the other hand the mutual effects and impacts were not really spectacular either, but micro-historical investigations may help us to reveal these. In the part to come, I would like to present some individual cases in connection with the relationship of eastern and western Christianity.

There are some natural parallel features in the Orthodox and in the Roman Catholic religious practice, which features can finely be pointed out with regard to dogma, liturgy and religious institutions. If we are interested in the phenomena of popular religiosity of everyday religious practice and piety, then we should scrutinize the level below the official elite religious systems by means of appropriate sources. 1 should add here that in the last decades in Hungarian folklore research the investigation of archaic or apocryphal folk prayers has begun to flourish, in which comparative aspects were also integrated due to popular prayers collected in Bácska. The comparative analysis of Hungarian and South Slavic folk prayers has revealed not only the interethnic exchange mechanisms of the genre but has also pointed out a possible inter-confessional exchange. In this procedure the lack of linguistic obstacles among the Serbs and the Roman Catholic South Slavic people is a significant factor. (Silling 2000)

The comprehensive investigation of various shrines from this point of view would also be of interest, but in this respect only some initial steps have been taken. Recently researchers’ attention have been drawn to those minor holy springs of local or microregional importance that did not gain any official assent on the one hand, still, on the other hand, the people preserved and went on with their paraliturgical actions related to these holy springs throughout decades or even centuries. Along one of the affluents of the Danube, River Mosztonga, 14 such like shrines have been listed. Out of these only two were officially acknowledged and functioned as a spot and destination of pilgrimage visited by ten thousands of people. In the case of the other twelve shrines, the worship of trees, icons and Holy Virgin-images as well as a faith in the healing force of the sacred springs can be detected. This archaic religious phenomenon has a clear inter-confessional character. Several holy springs can be regarded as joint sacred places visited by both Orthodox and Roman Catholic people. The devotees belonging to various denominations

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