GNADENORTE DER „TRÄNENDEN MARIENBILDER“ IN UNGARN - MITTEL DER IDEOLOGIE DER KATHOLISCHEN RESTAURATION UND DER KIRCHLICHEN UNION
PLACES OF PILGRIMAGE IN HUNGARY TO IMAGES OF MARY SAID TO SHED TEARS – IDEOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION AND THE CHURCH UNION

Summary/Abstract: Miraculous tears or drops of blood shed by paintings or statues are found at the origin of a few Marian places of pilgrimage in Hungary. Contemporary souces recorded nine cases in the late 17th to early 18th centuries. Four of these are Greek Catholic (Uniate) places, such as Máriapócs, the famous place of pilgrimage in Eastern Hungary. These miraculous events are linked to the situation of the country and the church at that time. This was the period when the Turks were driven out of Hungary, the time of the Counter- Reformation, the wars of independence against the Habsburgs and of civil wars. The tears were interpreted at the time to mean that Mary was sorrowing for the people’s sufferings and for the division of Christendom, longing for the restoration of Christian unity and reorganisation of the Catholic Church. The miraculous happenings also had an anti-Protestant slant and served the cause of conversion of Orthodox Ruthenians and Romanians to the Catholic Church, and organisation of the Greek Catholic Church.

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