Abbey of Kolozsmonostor
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History
The Benedictine Abbey was founded in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the reign of King Béla I of Hungary (1061-1063) at the earliest, and during the reign of King László I (1077-1095) at the latest. According to Kelemen Lajos, it was founded by the same ispán who founded the town of Kolozsvár. The earliest buildings of the Benedictines are dated to the second half of the 11th century.
The monastery was not subordinate to the bishop of Transylvania, but directly to the Archbishop of Esztergom, which led to several armed attacks against the monastery, because the Transylvanian bishops tried to extend their authority to the abbey. After Bishop Adorján (1187-1202), Bishop Vilmos (1204-1221) also sent armed men against the abbey, who ransacked the monastery and the church, arrested the abbot, burnt the papal documents and threw the documents confirming royal privileges into the Szamos River. Pope Honorius III ordered an investigation in 1222. In 1225, at the request of KingvAndrew II of Hungary, the Pope authorised the abbot of Kolozsmonostor to wear a mitre and a ring. The church was destroyed during the Mongol invasion and rebuilt in the second half of the 13th century. Only the sanctuary remains from that period. After the Mongol invasion, the jurisdictional struggles ceased.
Around 1288, the abbey was granted the right of authentication. Initially, charters were issued occasionally, and it was Abbot János, who headed the abbey from 1338, who put the activities of the authenticator on an organised basis.
In 1362, some of the burghers of Kolozsvár, in conflict with a nobleman from neighbouring Szucság, Chuey's son Paul, stormed the abbey of Kolozsmonostor and took the head of their opponent who had fled there. The incident is believed to have been sparked by the abbey's troubled property affairs; shortly afterwards Abbot Otto and Deacon István, the abbey's notary, forged several deeds to recover the monastery's properties. Abbot Otto disappeared, and Deacon István was sentenced to death by burning for forgery in 1383, the authentication was suspended, and the seal used in the forgeries was broken. The place resumed its activities the following year with a new seal, but public confidence was difficult to restore, despite the fact that Queen Mary confirmed the abbey's right to deliver justice and its independence from Kolozsvár on 14 February 1384 and allowed them to have a new public seal made in May.
Abbot Antal (1424-1451) gained great prestige for the monastery. He did an inventory of the library containing 42 volumes and the archives (1427), and reorganised the authentication office. To protect and recover the abbey's properties, he brought several lawsuits against, among others, the Transylvanian bishop Lépes György, the Bebek family of Pelsőc, the Transylvanian vajda Csáki László, and the former Székely ispán Mihály, son of Nádasdi Salamon. He was also in constant dispute with the town of Kolozsvár, on the one hand over the ownership of the bordering territories, and on the other over the mountain toll (hegyvám) to be paid by the burghers of Kolozsvár on the monastery vineyards.
In 1437, during the peasant uprising led by Budai Nagy Antal, the monastery was robbed and its notary, Deacon Balázs was killed. After Abbot Antal, the abbey was mostly managed by governors or commendators appointed by the monarch, who had the same status as abbots but were not members of the order.
Under King Matthias of Hungary, Abbot Pécsváradi Péter fortified the abbey without permission in 1465. The fortress was demolished by King Matthias in 1466. In 1492 the church was decorated with frescoes and coloured windows. On 26 April 1556, the Diet of Kolozsvár decreed the confiscation of the church property, thus ending the monastery's existence. (The last entry in the minutes of the authentication office is dated 30 June 1556.) From 1575 onwards, the functions of the authentication office were reorganised on a secular basis and the archives were transferred to the town. In 1579 it was donated by Prince Báthory István of Transylvania to the Jesuits, together with the villages of Kolozsmonostor, Bács, Jegenye, Tiburc, Kajántó and Bogártelke. The building was struck by lightning in 1596 and its roof burnt down. Although Princess Maria Christina ordered the restoration, the church was still in ruins in 1614 and was only restored around 1620-1622 at the expense of Somkeréki Erdélyi István. In 1609, the estate passed into the hands of Kamuti Balázs, who had the abbey converted into a castle. The estate was later taken over by the Treasury of Transylvania. The Turkish-Tatar raids of 1658-1661 finally destroyed the church. After the end of the independent Principality of Transylvania, the estate was again in the hands of the Jesuits, but since the order had in the meantime built a new church, a monastery and a school in Kolozsvár, the importance of this church declined.
In the period 1658-1661, the building was again severely damaged by the Tatar raids, and was subsequently restored by Kemény Simon's widow, Perényi Katalin. In 1704, during the War of Independence led by Rákóczi Ferenc II, the building deteriorated again, the church burned down, leaving only the sanctuary intact. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the church became a military storehouse in 1782 and was used as a granary in 1787. The roof was repaired in 1794-95, but in the following century, from 1818, with the permission of Bishop Rudnay Sándor, most of its stones were removed and used in the construction of the Royal Lyceum. All that remained of the building was the sanctuary, which was converted into a chapel in 1819. The nave of the church was rebuilt in 1896 by the Transylvanian Roman Catholic State in neo-Gothic style. The belfry, designed by Kós Károly, was built in 1922.
On 27 April 1924, the Transylvanian Roman Catholic State ceded the church to the Greek Catholics for 25 years, until 1 May 1949, for a symbolic rent of 100 lei per year, with the right of ownership reserved, for worship and ecclesiastical use only. After the Greek Catholic Church was dissolved on 1 December 1948 and its property was taken over by the Romanian State, it was used as a Romanian Orthodox church from 1948 to 1994. From 1991 to 1994, Roman Catholics were allowed to worship here, and from July 1994 it became the full property of the Roman Catholic Church. The outstanding restoration after 1994, carried out without state support, has resulted in a Europa Nostra award. The restored church was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary on 20 June 1997 by Archbishop Jakubinyi György of Gyulafehérvár. The church is now the parish church of the Kolozsmonostor.