Szentgerice, 10:55



We took the back road back to Szentgerice. I haven't commented much about the bus trips. Some of the roads aren't bad--Sandor explained some improvements happened a few years ago just before an election. Despite some "exciting" moments, the trip was wonderful. Beautiful forests, foothills, valleys. Splashes of purple and yellow. And the view of villages from a distance is really something. (I think John has figured out how to help me get some pictures posted...we'll try tomorrow.) Many in our group enjoyed swimming in the salt lake. It was good weather for it--the warm water matching the not too hot temperature.

We are just over half way through our trip and everyone seems to be holding up fine. Tomorrow we have a free day here in the village. I think this is very good timing. I hope some will be catching up on their sleep. We said goodbye today to Bill B. We also learned from Luke the good news that his uncle seemed to weather surgery well.

But now I'd like to get back to some of the history of Szentgerice. If this kind of thing bores you (I don't know how it could...) you can skip this post... I am using a brochure about Szentgerice that Sandor put together. Credit goes to him. (We talked tonight about helping to get the entire brochure on the web.)

There are indications of the presence of ancient peoples on this land. The first written evidence of the village comes from papal tithes in 1332 as Sancta Gerecia and in 1334 as Sancta Gratia (Holy Grace). In that pre-Reformation time the village was primarily Catholic. By 1559, apparently, the church had turned protestant. (As evidenced by the visit of the scholar from Wittenburg.) The period during the 16th century when the congregation was Unitarian may have been short. After Sigismund (the Unitarian King of Transylvania) died, the Bathory family took the throne. They set in place restrictions on religious practice and many of the formerly Unitarian Churches were "re-Catholicized"--Sandor's word. Sandor thinks this is likely to have happened here because of Szentgerice's proximity to the largely Catholic areas of Transylvania. The Reform Congregation was established sometime in the 17th century.

Now the Unitarian Church stands at one end of the village and the Reform Church at the other. The majority in the village is Unitarian. The ethnic history of this region, not unrelated to the religious history, is also fascinating. But, I won't go into that now.

Thanks to Betsy for alerting us about the Washington Post article quoting Bill Welch. I was also happy to hear from my friend Lynn today about her piece that appears on the Post's website. I think she represents Unitarian Universalism so well. If you haven't seen them, you can find her reflections at: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/08/post-traumatic_unity.html

Goodnight