“They spoke Hungarian but were of a Romanian faith.” A Greek Catholic community in Székely Land in the first half of the 20th century

Abstract

The present study examines the fate of a Greek Catholic parish in Székely Land, more specifically the inhabitants of Kostelek (Coşnea) based on the archival and anthropological field research of the author placing it within the context of the findings of earlier research on the 20th century identification struggles of Hungarian-speaking Greek Catholics in Hungary. For Greek Catholics of Ruthenian and Romanian origin assimilated to the majority Hungarians, their linguistic-national and religious identities were often incompatible during the 20th century. The problematic situations resulting from this “collision of identities” were treated by individual communities in a variety of ways, and Hungarian Greek Catholics living within changing state lines chose various identification routes. The case study presented here will demonstrate that all this, beyond the political changes, was closely related to the pastoral activity of the local priesthood and to particular local conditions.