The Interwoven Existences of Official Catholicism and Magical Practice in the Lived Religiosity of a Transylvanian Hungarian Village

During the last five years I have been doing field research in a Transylvanian Hungarian village, Sânsimion (Hu: Csíkszentsimon). I present my research on this religiously homogenous, Catholic community’s worldview. Based on interviews conducted with members of the village’s various age groups, I map religious and magical knowledge passed down through the generations, using the theoretical frame of collective memory and religious transmission. Second, I highlight two different but coexisting “constructions of reality” in this rural community. By “constructions of reality,” I mean interpretations of reality expressed in narrative discourses and local magical practices that are closely and inextricably interwoven with a Catholic religious worldview. By developing this picture of interpenetrating constructions of reality, I offer insight into the interconnection of religious worldviews and magic in a Catholic community