The Church-Union of the Armenians in Transylvania (1685–1715)

By (author) Kornél Nagy Associate editor Christopher B. Brown Associate editor Günter Frank Associate editor Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer Associate editor Tarald Rasmussen Associate editor Violet Soen Associate editor Zsombor Tóth Associate editor Günther Wassilowsky Associate editor Siegrid Westphal

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Extent: 251 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Early Modern & Renaissance Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Refo500 Academic Studies (R5AS)

Language: English, Hungarian

Hardback (Published)

(August 2021)

ISBN: 9783525503546

6.34 x 9.25 inches

Price: $150.00

In stock

The Armenians in the Motherland and Diaspora and the Catholic Renewal in the 17th and 18th Centuries


The 17th and 18th centuries have been regarded as one of the most exciting periods in the history of Hungary and Transylvania. The wars of liberation to terminate the Ottoman occupation, the integration of the Transylvanian Principality into the Habsburg Empire after 150-years’ relative independence, the colonisation of the uncultivated lands during the Ottoman rule, the re-organisation of daily life and Prince Francis (Ferenc) RAkczi’s independence war (1703-1711) indicated serious challenges for the Habsburg Court in Vienna. This period (1686-1711) felled serious duties to the Hungarian Catholic Church, too. Prior to these duties, the process of Counter-Reformation in Hungary’s eastern and northern regions was getting increasingly under way: Orthodox Ruthenians and Romanians in Transylvania united with the Roman Catholic Church. The bishops, who were highly supported by the missionaries delegated from Rome in order to re-organise the Hungarian Catholic Church’s religious life, re-appeared at the seats of the abandoned dioceses after the 150-years’ Ottoman occupation and nearly 110-years’ pressure from the strong Protestantism supported by the Princes of Transylvania. The Armenians’ church-union in Transylvania must be, in fact, analysed in this church-historical context. The history of Armenians in Transylvania, escaping from Moldavia and Podolia between 1668 and 1672, should be regarded practically as an undiscovered area from both the Hungarian and international church-historical point of view. The church-union of the Armenians in Transylvania is primarily associated with Bishop Oxendio Virziresco’s (1654-1715), an Armenian Uniate cleric educated at Collegium Urbanum in Rome, missionary efforts. In this work, I have tried to look for evident responses to these afore-mentioned problems, resting on the partly discovered and undiscovered sources as well as analysing critically a few of secondary literature.

PhD Kornél Nagy is Historian, Armenologist and Research Fellow.

  • By (author) Kornél Nagy
  • Associate editor Christopher B. Brown
  • Associate editor Günter Frank
  • Associate editor Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer
  • Associate editor Tarald Rasmussen
  • Associate editor Violet Soen
  • Associate editor Zsombor Tóth
  • Associate editor Günther Wassilowsky
  • Associate editor Siegrid Westphal

"The merits of this work include its chronological sweep, careful evaluation of archives in seven countries and publications in many languages (the bibliography is thirty pages in length), and the admirably clear and convincing conclusions." Niessen, James P., Church History, December 11, 2023
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