„Egy füstbe ment terv”. Michál Minas Theodorowicz örmény unitus püspöki jelöltsége Erdélyben (1731−1742)
“The Plan Failed”. Candidacy of Michál Minas Theodorowicz as an Armenian Uniate (Catholic) Bishop in Transylvania (1731–1742)

Summary/Abstract: One of the least known events in the church-history of Transylvania in the 18th century is the candidacy of the Armenian Uniate Priest Michál Minas Theodorowicz (1686−1760). At the same time, the scant literature available to us has embellished the activity of this man of church with many myths. Posterity remembered him as a cleric of pure faith and capable of great sacrifices for his people, who almost became the Uniate Bishop of the Armenians in Transylvania in the 18th century. In addition, there is a myth about his figure that in 1758 Queen Maria Theresa (1740−1780) appointed him Apostolic Vicar and Bishop of the Transylvanian Armenians of the Uniate faith, but his consecration failed mainly due to the fierce opposition of Daniel Todor, the Armenian Supreme Judge of Szamosújvár [Gherla, Romania], because he wanted his close relative, Daniel Minas, who studied in Rome, to be appointed as a Bishop of the Armenians in Transylvania instead of Theodorowicz at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Apostolic See in Rome. Therefore, the main aim of this article is, among other things, to clarify the circumstances of Michál Minas Theodorowicz’s appointment as a Bishop with the help of recently uncovered archival sources, being kept in foreign countries, and to shade the myth related to him. In addition, through the case of Theodorowicz, we get an insight into the history of Transylvania in the 18th century, especially in the 1730s and 1740s, the scholarly research of which has been pushed into the background in recent decades.

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