„WE WERE LED BY THE LORD IN A SPECIAL WAY …” : VISIONS, EXPLICATIONS AND REALITY IN A TWENTIETH CENTURY CALVINIST CONGREGATION

Küllős, Imola (2001) „WE WERE LED BY THE LORD IN A SPECIAL WAY …” : VISIONS, EXPLICATIONS AND REALITY IN A TWENTIETH CENTURY CALVINIST CONGREGATION. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 46 (1-2). pp. 153-159. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The main religious lay-leader of the Hungarian Calvinists living in Carpathian Ukraine was the peasant-prophetess, Mrs. Mariska Borku (1910–1978). Her higly important work, the so-called “Third Testament” is a manuscript, written under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It was considered by Mrs. Mariska Borku and her followers as a holy text, a part of the Bible. These almost 800 biblical “quasi loci” were spread in hand-written copies and were read aloud at religious meetings in the Hungarian villages of Carpathian Ukraine, even 10–15 years after her death. Beside the biblical paraphrases, religious songs and prayers, one fourth of the text consists of her visions. The prophetess never explained these visions and the Holy Spirit’s “verbs” to her followers – only announced them. Recently the largest religious community of her followers, mostly women over fifty, exists in the village of Dercen. Its lay-leader, Miss Ida Balla, can explain the Words of the “Third Testament”, and the visions of Mrs. Borku on the occasion of their private religious service Sunday afternoons. My study offers a short survey of the historical and political situation of the area between 1920 and 1995, in which the emphasised folk religion played a very important role in the survival of national identity and in strengthening the faith of the Hungarian inhabitants living in a very often tragic minority status. I illustrate my presentation with original visionary texts of the “Third Testament”, and their actual-political exegesis given by the recent lay-leader of Mrs. Mariska Borku’s followers.

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