On the Boundary Between Religion and Magic. Priests, Attitudes and Religious Amulets in Bácska in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Bárth, Dániel (2024) On the Boundary Between Religion and Magic. Priests, Attitudes and Religious Amulets in Bácska in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. ACTA ETHNOGRAPHICA HUNGARICA, 69 (1). pp. 167-186. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

Based on previously unknown archival sources, the study explores the relationship between popular demands related to religious amulets and the Church's responses to them in nineteenth-century Bácska [Bačka]. The multi-ethnic region of Southern Hungary (now largely part of Serbia) offers a diverse range of data in the context of the Roman Catholic Church. The faithful sought material and written amulets primarily in the hope of healing, warding off evil and exorcising demons, the effectiveness of which was created by the ecclesiastical blessing (benedictio). The clergy, socialized in the milieu of Josephinism, show different attitudes in serving such needs (the trinity of denial, toleration, support). The uncertainty of the lower clergy in this theologically unclear area is almost palpable. This uncertainty is a consequence of the Enlightenment and of rationalism, along which the correctness of many earlier Baroque religious practices was called into question. The examples cited in the study include a religious-magical sheet print, a letter from Heaven, an icon to be worn around the neck and a special demon-exorcising paper slip. The best way to learn about all these is from the letters and reports of the priests, which also reflect their own attitudes.

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