Pentecostalism and Social Integration: the Conversion of a Csángó Woman

Abstract

Between 2013-2017, I conducted research in an ERC research project in a micro-region of Moldova in Roma, Orthodox Romanian and Moldavian Csángó Pentecostal communities. The fieldwork-based analyses focused on the ritual practices of these communities, the relationship between migration and conversion, the modelling of conversion stories, etc. (The summarizing volume of the studies: “We have the gift of Christ in us.” Pentecostalism in Romanian, Roma and Csángó communities from Moldavia. Balassi Kiadó–Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, Budapest–Kolozsvár, 2020.) Based on this research project, but expanding it with new fieldwork and research perspective, the study analyzes the story of a Csangó woman who converted to Pentecostalism in a Catholic village in Moldova. The analysis gives an insight into the functioning of the norms and institutions that determine the life of the person, the reaction of the Roman Catholic community, the response of the family and the strategy of the priest in the situation. Along the lines of John Lofland and Rodney Stark’s 1967 model defining aspects of religious conversions, I present the life events deemed most important in her approach to Pentecostalism, as well as the fundamental changes in her worldview.