Andrea Santacroce bécsi apostoli nuncius és az erdélyi örmények egyháza
Andrea Santacroce Apostolic Nuncio in Wien and the Transylvanian Armenian Church

Summary/Abstract: This article is dedicated to the less known chapter of the Armenians’ church-history in Transylvania at the end of the 17th century. Further on, this study explicitly deals with Andrea Santacroce’s (1656−1712), − Apostolic Nuncio in Vienna, Titular Archbishop of Seleucia in Isauria −, connection with Armenian community in Transylvania from a church-historical point of view. His ecclesiastical office in Vienna (1696−1700) essentially coincided with the case of apostasy broken out amongst the Armenians in Transylvania in 1697, which had nearly ruined their church-union concluded in 1689, in Lemberg, Poland. The reason of the conflict was focused upon the right interpretation of the church-union between Oxendio Virziresco (1654−1715), the Armenian Uniate Bishop, and Armenian community in Transylvania. Consequently, prior to his higher education at Urbanian College in Rome, the Armenian Uniate Bishop was faithful to pure Latinisation. In his point of view, the Uniate Armenians in Transylvania must have the same duties as the Roman Catholic believers. However, the Uniate Armenians was henceforward attached to old or ancient Armenian religious as well as liturgical costumes despite their church-union concluded in 1689. In their point of view, the church-union was confined to acknowledge the Roman Pope’s primacy and nothing else. This problem of interpreting caused tension within the Armenian community in Transylvania, which led to conflict and the case of apostasy in the late 1690’s. In this manner, this article aims at presenting and summarising the historical precedents and consequences of these events happened in Transylvania and, evidently, its relation to the ecclesiastical office of Nuncio Andrea Santacroce, resting upon the partly discovered and entirely undiscovered sources kept at archives in Hungary, Italy, and Vatican City.

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