Local Priest Research Articles

Blurred Boundaries and Contested Authorities in Two Archenfield Parishes in the Later Middle Ages

This article’s primary aim is to present a highly localised body of evidence from two neighbouring small communities, Garway and Pencoyd, in the Archenfield area of the Welsh March. In Garway’s case, two documents from either end of the long fifteenth century show the local community condemning its parish priest, siding first with one authority and then another, and stressing its Welsh lineage. In Pencoyd, the remarkable survival of the local priest’s manuscripts shows him to have been a diligent pastor and teacher, in tune with diocesan expectations and connected to networks of learning on both sides of the border. Such a local study illuminates evidence of great interest in its own right, but also helps open up the possibility of a wider narrative that attends more fully to local experience in its variety and to the agency of local people.

‘For everything, the local priest is a helper in adversity’: Catholic clergy and the new order in post-Habsburg Tyrol

ABSTRACT Austrian North Tyrol – the northern part of the former Habsburg Crownland not occupied and annexed by Italy after the Great War – is often presented as a redoubt of tradition and religiosity, in which conservative powerbrokers and the Catholic Church easily wielded rural allegiances to their own ends. Such narratives, however, elide the substantial efforts necessary to maintain this system through periods of crisis. In this article, the author investigates how a key group of actors within the Catholic conservative elite – Roman Catholic parish priests – navigated one of these periods: the post-imperial transition. Identifying the Tyrolean clergy as a sub-elite that mediated between higher political elites and the wider population, the author uncovers how local resistance challenged the influence of the Church in the aftermath of the war. In response, priests led a Catholic offensive aimed at winning back their parishes and reaffirming the hierarchies that underlay conservative rule in Austrian Tyrol. Ultimately, through their multiple functions and role as mediators, Tyrolean parish clergy contributed in often-overlooked ways to shoring up Catholic conservative hegemony and extending it across the interwar period.

Церковное проповедничество в приходах Кольского благочиния в конце XVIII — начале XIX века

The article is devoted to the previously unexplored issue of the preaching activities of urban and rural clergy in the parishes of the Kola deanery of the Arkhangelsk Diocese in the late XVIII — early XIX century. The research is based on documents from the foundation of the Kemsky Spiritual Collegium (National Archive of the Republic of Karelia), which was subordinated to parishes in Russian Lapland. It turns out that at that time there were no "learned priests" with full seminary education in the clergy of the Kola deanery who could deliver catechetical teachings of their own composition. The preaching of local priests was limited to the recitation of ready-made texts recommended by the Holy Synod. New information is introduced into scientific circulation about the Kola dean Archpriest Vasily Ivanovsky, who played a prominent role in the parish administration in the Kola North at the end of the XVIII — early XIX century.

Makna Ketaatan bagi Para Calon Imam Diosesan dalam Terang Injil Yohanes 8: 32-33

The calling to be the ministers of Word and Sacrament is considered God’grace granted upon His people of God who are faithful and willing follow His path. This sacred calling of priesthood undergoes in a long-tiring process started from basic to higher formation (read education) when the candidates take their philosophical and theological studies, and finally they are ordained priests for the services of God’s people. The Interdiocesan Seminary of Saint Peter, Ritapiret in Flore, Indonesia is an educational body for the candidates of the local priests under the local Church of Maumee diocese, where in the candidates grow and mature in many aspects, including intelectual, spiritual, missionary and human characteristics which are centered in the loving service characteristics that have been lived out by the High Priest, Jesus the Lord. ‘The meaning of obedience for the the Diocese priestly candidates in the light of John 8: 32-33’ aims at searching and tracing the divine values treasured in the Gospel of John 8: 32-33, on which the writer will base the whole juxtaposition on the matter of the spirit of obedience which are comprehended and lived out by the Interdiocesan seminarians – the candidates of the local Church priests.

Русская православная церковь и практика духовного воздействия на преступников в условиях Югорского Севера в конце XVI – начале XX в.

The aim of the research is to characterize the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the penal institutions of the Yugra North region and the role of local priests in preventing crimes from the late 16th to the early 20th century. The first area of this activity was the work with prisoners, as the North region of Western Siberia was the place for exiling of both state and criminal offenders. The second area was the work with indigenous people, as the missionary work was not aimed only at christening but also at preventing religious crimes (return to paganism, shamanism, non-attendance of the church, etc.). The article identifies the stages and specific features of this church activity, which were influenced by the arctic climate and the nomadic lifestyle of the indigenous population. The research also examines the impact of the Russian criminal legislation and the Penitentiary Reform of 1879, which aimed to humanize the conditions of imprisonment, on the church’s policies in Yugra. The novelty of this study lies in the absence of previous publications on this topic and the use of a new approach to analyze the archived materials: the author utilizes statistical data from the State Archive of the Tyumen Region in Tobolsk to understand the ROC’s position on religious crimes committed by the indigenous peoples of the North. The research concludes that the ROC’s activities in the penitentiary field underwent significant changes during the late 19th and the early 20th century. Providing spiritual assistance to convicts for their reformation became a regular occurrence, while religious crimes committed by the indigenous peoples of the North remained unpunished. This situation was influenced by the overall processes happening within the Russian Empire, including the emergence of social contradictions and imminent revolutionary events. The state had to react to these circumstances by weakening control over outdated legislation and adopting new normative acts. In these conditions, the ROC’s efforts to prevent crimes aligned not only with Russia’s penitentiary policy but also with the political course as a whole. Despite the challenges associated with living and working in the Arctic North, the priests of Yugra fulfilled state tasks. Overall, the ROC’s activities in preventing religious crimes reflected the complex socio-political processes occurring within Russian society. These contradictions ultimately led to the Revolution of 1917, and with the establishment of “scientific atheism” as part of the state ideology, the concept of “religious crime” was abolished, and spiritual activities by priests in places of confinement were prohibited.

Local Priests and their Siblings c. 900–c. 1100

Abstract Priests’ relationships with their brothers and sisters are richly evidenced in tenth- and eleventh-century documentary sources across the Latin West. But the looming shadow of the ‘Gregorian Reform’ has focused historians’ attentions on clerical marriage and vertical familial relationships ( fathers and sons, or uncles and nephews ). This article redresses the balance, arguing that sibling relationships have been underestimated in their importance to the lived experience of local priests, their families and communities in the tenth and eleventh centuries in post-Carolingian western Francia. It examines how priests and their brothers and sisters managed estates, co-operated to pool resources, and developed inheritance strategies with particular emphasis on how such records may reflect both practice on the ground and the concerns of the scribes, draftsmen and archivists who recorded, copied and edited them.

The Earliest Form and Function of the ‘Admonitio synodalis’ *

Abstract This article examines a text known as the ‘Admonitio synodalis’ as evidence for episcopal expectations of local priests in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The ‘Admonitio’ is generally considered a stable text that represented and fostered continuity within the Church, but this article highlights instead its early development. It begins by identifying a previously unedited version of the text found in some tenth-century manuscripts, arguing that this long recension is the closest to the original form. It then turns to how the text was adapted in the tenth century, notably by Bishop Rather of Verona. It finally examines the changes made to the text when it was incorporated into the liturgy of synodal ordines in the early eleventh century. A transcription of the tenth-century recension, based on a Brussels manuscript, is provided as an appendix.

Σταλλῳ y βανουας (Tamaşalık, Isauria)

Among the Greek inscriptions from Tamaşalık (ancient Isauria), two hapaxes are found: Σταλλῳ and βανουας. The first is a theonym and should be explained as a pure Greek formation. By contrast, the noun βανουας, a title of a local priest, is here considered a borrowing from Aramaic bānōyā ‘builder, architect’. The connection between the priests and the buildings of this ancient village is given by the aedilic inscriptions of the site.

THE Priesthood and Administrartion of Abydos during the Saite Period (based on the Data from Private Monuments)

The article deals with the main composition of the Abydos’ elite during the Saite Period (664–525 B.C.). The aim of the article is to analyze the changes in Abydos’ elite after the unification of Egypt under the rule of Psamtik I. The author analyzes the data from private inscriptions, mostly the lists of different positions of the monuments’ owners. The vast majority of private stelae and statues belonged to local priests, associated with cults of the VIII (Thinite) nome of Upper Egypt. The data shows the existence of other sacerdotal ranks and titles that can be regarded as superior or inferior in the sacerdotal hierarchy. However, the exact position of the most common priestly titles cannot be determined due to the lack of data on their specific functions. A small part of private monuments, dating back to the reign of last Saite kings, preserved information about the non-priestly positions of their owners that held different military or administrative offices. The absence of data on any sacerdotal posts of these nobles can be explained by the gradual isolation of priesthood from other social groups of Ancient Egypt. The author suggests that this disproportion between priestly and civil offices reflects the development of the royal administration during the Saite Period. Due to Psamtik I’ policy, local priests retained their power over their nomes in exchange for swearing their loyalty to the Saite king. The emergence of civil offices in private inscriptions of the VI century B.C. denotes the strengthening of royal power.

Cercetări arheologice la biserica mare din cetatea Aiudului. II : exteriorul bisericii / Archaeological excavations at the big church from the fortress of Aiud. II : the exterior of the church

This paper has been composed as the second in a series on the archaeological research undertaken in 2008 and 2018– 2020 at the large (Reformed) church of Aiud Fortress. The first study of the series has consisted of a brief presentation of the main data collected inside the monument. This second study presents even more briefly the main data collected outside the monument, as they appeared in more convoluted and fragmentary contexts. These excavations have established the main stratigraphic sequence of this area of Aiud Fortress as consisting of Roman age habitation in mortarless structures, followed by a hiatus, then by an early‑second‑millennium settlement, with at least two phases, which similarly made use only of mortarless structures. Despite its long existence, and even though sources infer the existence of local priests in the 13th century, there is no solid ground to contest, based on archaeological data, the traditional ascription of the small church (erected 1333– 1334, demolished and rebuilt 1865– 1866) as the beginning of religious masonry building at Aiud – and likely of the present‑day religious site. Nevertheless, the development of the large church of the fortress remains uncertain. Research conducted inside the current building has revealed that it was preceded by a smaller, yet still Gothic, church. Research conducted outside the building helped establish that the eastern part of the church was build first, in several phases, and only afterward was the body of the church also expanded. However, the western parts of the current structure show obvious signs of rebuilding, and dismantled structures indicate that the tower was not initially part of the extended planimetry. Due to the partial nature of the investigation, archaeology cannot yet establish the succession of the construction phases involved, or what they exactly involved, nor can it help in solving the questions raised by the varied modifications noticeable in the aboveground structure. While most late‑ and post‑medieval results presented below relate to the large church, they also include data about the small one, about a series of built structures identified in the area between the two churches and west of the large one, and about the overall development of the site, severely marked by arson and destruction in the early 18th century. The graveyard and materials are only mentioned, and not discussed, as they’ll be the subject of following papers.

Farár Alexander Šindelár vo funkcii starostu obce Piešťany

Very few Slovak communities or cities have in their history a Catholic priest as the head of their administration. One of those was the city of Piešťany, which during the years 1931 – 1938 had as mayor the local priest, Alexander Šindelár. Acting as the mayor of Piešťany, he had a significant contribution in building relationships between the community and spa. In the state archive there is an original copy of his first official mayoral speech. He built the road bridge across the river Vah, and paved streets and paths. For the needs of residents, he founded the new cemetery, which is still operating. Šindelár ended his political activity; he was a district president of Hlinka´s Slovak People´s Party. After the end of his tenure as mayor, he devoted himself solely to pastoral activities in his parish. Šindelár tragically died in his parish in November 1947, after blessing one of the missing bells from the First World War. He is buried in the cemetery not far away from his parish church.

Power and Play

Power and Play

Advertir el parentesco espiritual. Compadrazgo, sociabilidad y redes de poder en Jesus de Machaca (corregimiento de Pacajes, Charcas, siglo XVII)

As an effect of the regulations issued by the III Limense Council (1583-1591) and the first synods of Charcas (1619-1620), the requirement to record the baptisms, marriages and burials of the native population led the parish priests of the Andean south to prepare and preserve the respective books as documentary evidence of the daily practices of their offices. This article aims to explore the first book of baptisms of the pueblo of Jesús de Machaca (Pacajes province, Charcas, Viceroyalty of Perú), whose pages contain traces of the work of the successive priests of the town between 1633 and 1673. Specifically, we analyze compadrazgo practices among parishioners, deployed according to the criteria for selecting godparents for boys and girls who were born within the family groups of the ayllu of the pueblo. We also deepen the genealogical framework of the cacical family, the Fernández Guarachi, and their links with lesser authorities and ecclesiastical auxiliaries. Finally, we inquire into the link between the local priests and the higher instances of the diocesan government from the records of the episcopal visitas contained in the book, which sought (not always successfully) to shape the daily life of the parish.

Paso a paso se va muy lejos: Traveling the Path with AFS

<i>Paso a paso se va muy lejos</i>: Traveling the Path with AFS

Aslak Rostad. Human Transgression—Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (“Confession Inscriptions”)

Aslak Rostad. <i>Human Transgression—Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (“Confession Inscriptions”)</i>

Традиционное территориальное устройство Андомского прихода Олонецкого уезда в первой половине XVIII столетия

The article investigates the specific features in the territorial structure of the church parish on the Andoma pogost district of the Olonets uyezd during the first half of the 18th century. The set problem has not been the subject of close analysis in the historiography yet. Approving the idea that the parish on the North-West of Russia was coherent with the small district (volost’) in 17—18th centuries, emphasizing the unity of the parish, scientists mainly focused on the problem of identifying the general features of the parish and on classification of parishes. The study is based on a comparative analysis of data that were fixed in the reports of the local priests in 1708 and confessional records in 1769. The reconstruction of the grid of all mentioned in the sources villages were used for visualizing the groups of villages, inhabitants of which belonged to different parts of the parish. The revealing data as well as the reconstruction of peculiarities how the clergy was attached to one or another church and how the staff of the clergy was divided into two parts allow us to conclude that the church parish of the Andoma pogost district had significantly more complicated structure, especially in comparative with the structure of church parishes of not very vast districts (volosts). According to tradition the parish was divided into two parts for regulating mechanism of material support of the clergy, distributing obligations among them and satisfaction spiritual needs of the laity. Both parts of the parish had a significant degree of self-dependence: each had its own church, own clergy that was included in the common clergy staff (shtat), and the strictly geographically localized group of villages. The stable using of archaic practices in the territorial organization of the parish during the first half of the 18th century suggests that the local community managed to adapt them to the newly approved legislative principles, aimed at unifying and enlarging church parishes. This was largely possible as the state and church policy took into account archaic traditions of local communities and was aimed on results in the long term.

Balinese Calonarang in Performance

Balinese <i>Calonarang</i> in Performance

Social Characteristics of the Bulgarian Priesthood in the Kaza of Razlog in the Early XX Century

The study examines the social characteristics of the clergy in the kaza (region) of Razlog in the early twentieth century. Based on the register of local parish priests from 1910, the main socio-economic indicators of the clergy are traced: age, marital status, ordination circumstances, years of service, church hierarchy, origin and heredity of the profession, education, parish size, annual income. The regional peculiarities of the clergy in the context of the general data on the Bulgarian priests in Macedonia in the beginning of the XX century are outlined.

''… SENT BY JESUS CHRIST'' (CULTURAL INCIDENT OF 1875 IN THE CHIGIRINSKY DISTRICT)

The relevance of the topic is due to the trends in the development of historical science, the vector of which is directed towards the study of the history of "little" people. One of the completely forgotten characters of the past was a simple peasant woman, Nastasya Likhosherstaya. For the first time in historiography, her work is in the field of special scientific interest and is considered against the background of long-term peasant unrest in the Chigirin district of the Kiev province in the 1870s. The scene of action was the village of Adamovka of the same district. The main characters are Likhosherstaya herself, several hundred villagers, mostly women, a volost foreman and a local priest. The study was carried out within the framework of microhistory methods, which make it possible to consider the object of study in event details and semantic shades. The source base for the study was the materials of official records management, including reports from the volost and district police authorities to higher authorities, as well as reports from the Kiev GZhU to the 3rd department of the imperial chancellery. The article shows how the study of a separate cultural incident helps to take a fresh look at the attitude of the peasants themselves to the reform in the state village on the example of a specific district of Right-Bank Ukraine.

Tradisi Makkuliwa Lopi Pada Masyarakat Mandar Balanipa Dalam Perspektif Hukum Islam

The focus of the research discussion is on: The history of the makkuliwa lopi tradition in the Mandar Mandar community in the Balanipa District, Polewali Mandar Regency, the process of implementing the makkuliwa lopi tradition in the Balanipa Mandar community, Polewali Mandar Regency and the perspective of Islamic law in the makkuliwa lopi tradition in the Balanipa Mandar community, Polewali Mandar Regency. This study shows that fishing traditions such as makkuliwa lopi by the Mandar Majene community have the intent and purpose of celebrating the new boat and asking for prayers for safety and blessings for the boat. The implementation of the tradition can take place at any time but the time and its implementation still take into account the time and day that are considered good. The perpetrators of this tradition are boat owners, local priests, boat builders and mustard (captain) boats. The implication of this research is that Mandar fishing traditions such as makkuliwa lopi need to be maintained and get more attention from the younger generation in order to know the diversity of local wisdom