Did Kata Bethlen Compose any Paraphrase on the Psalms? Cover Image

Írt-e Apafiné zsoltárparafrázist?
Did Kata Bethlen Compose any Paraphrase on the Psalms?

Author(s): Csaba Fekete
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History of Church(es), Theology and Religion
Published by: Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület
Keywords: Bethlen Kata;Psalm paraphrase

Summary/Abstract: The answer to the question formulated in the title is definitely negative. Kata Bethlen married the last Transylvanian Prince at the age of fourteen. Around that time (presumably in 1692 or later, nonetheless before 1696) a Lutheran prayer book entitled Arany Lánc (Golden Chain) with inserted short poems was published. Another prayer book appeared several times between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries under the title Bujdosásnak emlékezet köve (Memorial Stone of Peregrination), preceded by a dedication poem. A few lines of that poem alludes to the favorite Psalm 42 (Quemadmodum cervus). Mistakenly, this prayer book and these poems also became interpreted by the twentieth-century Hungarian poet S. Weöres as an anonymous work composed by a so far unknown poetess, Kata Bethlen the younger, i.e. the wife of M. Apafi. The present study clears the details of philological and biblical background, showing that the author’s identification was erroneous.

  • Issue Year: 102/2009
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 286-294
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Hungarian