Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary and Franciscan Monastery in Csíksomlyó
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History
It is one of the most important pilgrimage sites and cultural and historical monuments of Hungary.
The Franciscan monks settled here in the 15th century, and between 1442 and 1448 they built the first Gothic church and the small Gothic monastery. Hunyadi János also contributed to the construction of the church from the spoils of his victory over the Turks. The church was consecrated in honour of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is still the church's feast day (2 July in Hungary). It is called 'Sarlós Boldogasszony' in Hungarian (Blessed Lady of the Sickle), as 2 July was the beginning of the harvest. The church and monastery were surrounded by a strong stone wall, where the people of the area fled in the following centuries during enemy invasions.
In 1661, the Turks set the church and the monastery on fire, and the people who fled here were partly killed and partly taken prisoner. The victims were buried in a mass grave in front of the church. In 1664, with the prince's permission, the abbot Damokos Kázmér started a nationwide collection and the church was restored with the donations he had collected. At this time, the statue of Mary, which had escaped the fire, was placed on the main altar. Previously it had been part of a separate side altar dedicated to Mary.
In 1694, a Tatar army attacked Csíksomlyó, but the monastery's students, with the help of the people, repelled them. The buildings were repaired and enlarged several times in the 17th and 18th centuries, but by 1802 the church had become too small and it was decided to build a new one.
Construction of the new Baroque church began in 1804, according to the plans of architect Konstantin Schmidt. Construction proceeded slowly, with the blessing of the sacristy and sanctuary on 21 November 1813, but the church was still far from complete. The towers were completed in 1830. The copper statue of Mary on the facade was made in 1837 by Rothenbacher, a master goldsmith from Brassó. The church was consecrated by the Bishop Fogarasy Mihály of Transylvania on 20 August 1876.
In 1948 Pope Pius XII elevated it to the rank of basilica minor.
The statue of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus is the most precious part of the church. Carved in lime wood, it was probably made in the Renaissance style between 1515 and 1520. With its 2.27 m hight it is the largest of the world's miraculous statues, but its creator is unknown. It depicts a woman dressed in the sun, with the crescent moon at her feet, a wreath of 12 stars around her head, a crown on her head, a sceptre in her right hand and the Saviour in her left. This statue is the centre of Marian pilgrimages, where pilgrims pay homage, kiss her feet, caress her, and touch her with their votive objects. The statue survived the great Turkish attack and fire of 1661. Legend has it that the Turkish leader, seeing its value, wanted to take it, but the statue became so heavy that they could not move it with eight pairs of oxen. Seeing this, he wounded the statue's face and neck with his sword, the marks of which can still be seen today.
The church was largely decorated by Papp Miklós, a painter and sculptor from Brassó.
The high altar was only completed in 1876. The choir was built in 1831 by Papp Miklós and Pfeiffer Antal, a master craftsman from Gyergyószentmiklós. The stained glass windows were made in 1905 in Bohemia. The statues of the Hungarian saint kings, St Stephen and St László, on either side of the miraculous statue were made in 1905 in the workshop of Jozef Runggaldier in Gröden, Tyrol. The statues of St Anthony and St Joseph were made by Vágó Gábor in 1938.
The organ was built in 1931 by the organ factory of Wegenstein Lipót and Sons in Temesvár, and with its 2824 pipes it is one of the most beautiful organs in Transylvania. The crypt under the church was built in 1732 and extended in 1838, when the church was built.
The pulpit was made by Papp Miklós in 1835.
Among the altars, the altarpiece of St. Francis was painted in 1838 by Csűrös József, a painter from Kolozsvár. The altar of St. Anne was painted by Papp Miklós in 1839, as well as the altar of St. John the Baptist in 1840. The altar of St. Anne shows St. Apollonia above and the Nativity of Jesus below. The altar of St John the Baptist has St Sarah above and St Mary Magdalene below. The present picture of the altar of St. Anthony was painted in 1931 by the painter Szopos Sándor from Kolozsvár, after the original picture was given to the chapel in Sófalva. The upper picture, depicting St Bonaventure, was painted by Papp Miklós. The picture of the altar of St. Elizabeth was painted in 1938, after the original picture of St. Ignatius of Loyola was brought to the choir. The upper St. Juliana and the lower (The Last Supper) picture are also by Papp Miklós. The altar of St. John of Nepomuk was erected in 1835, with St. Elizabeth's Visitation on the top and St. Wendelin of Trier on the bottom. The painter of the altar of St Margaret of Cortona is unknown.
The monastery of Csíksomlyó was built in the 15th century together with the Gothic church. From the very beginning, the Franciscans educated children in the area, first at a basic level and then at a higher level. The first mention of the grammar school of Csíksomlyó dates back to 1630. After the Turkish invasion in 1661, the monks restored the church and the monastery, and in 1667 they re-founded the grammar school. The Franciscans also founded a printing press in 1675, which became one of the most important distributors of Transylvanian culture until the end of the 19th century. It was the only Catholic printing house in Transylvania until 1727, when the Jesuit Academy in Kolozsvár founded its printing press. The most important founder was the highly educated monk Father Kájoni János, whose first Latin-Hungarian hymnal was published here in 1676. The monastery library was one of the richest ecclesiastical collections in Transylvania. In the 17th century, a paintor's workshop was also located next to the monastery. The monastery also houses the Csíksomlyó calendar stone, which dates back to the Bronze Age.
The grammar school had its heyday in the 18th century. In 1720 the St. Anthony of Padua Society began its activities, and from 1730 the St. Mary Society. A boarding seminary was established thanks to the donation of Lukács Mihály, dean of Csík. In 1858 Father Simon Jukundián founded a school for cantors and teachers. In 1911 the Franciscans handed the grammar school over to the diocese, when it moved to the present-day Márton Áron Lyceum building, where it functioned as a Catholic grammar school until 1948.