Népi Mária-tiszteletünk teológus szemmel : egy szellemtörténeti közhely

The research work und publications of Sándor Bálint fill a great need in the investigation ofthe religiosity ofHungarian peasantry. It is also importunt to throw light upon this topic from theological point of view. This religiosity was not a pure belief, but the behaviour of everyday life. The figure of Blessed Mary is put into a peasant environment und is seen as a grafter, regper, seeker for shelter, as a mother mourning over her child or a woman preparing for good death. Thus her followers are able und intend to imitate her. Hungarian folk religiosity und especially the veneration ofVirginMaryformulated a remarkable language ofthe cult und set ofexpressions,such as the special names of the calendar feasts devoted to Blessed Mary. ('Kisboldogasszony' - Feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 'Gyümölcsoltó Boldogasszony' - Feast of Annunciation, 'Nagyboldogasszony' - Feast of the Assumption, 'Sarlósboldogasszony' - Feast of the Visitation etc. referring in their names to a smaller feast of Our Lady (Sept 8), to Our Lady of Grafting (March 25), to a bigger feast of Our Lady (Aug 15), to Our Lady of Reaping (July 2), etc.) With the help of this theologically complex principles are drown closer to the worldview of peasant society. This cult living within the frame of everyday life postulates a communal frame. This community, however, by means of continuity helps to maintain the traditional religiosity of its members. The practicality of folk religiosity questions its spirituality. As opposed to the wrong conclusions of earlier investigationsitissurprisingly faithful, even dogmatic in its own way. Also theologists accept the infallibility of the believers. Since they live their faith in their own community, there is no doubtthatfolk religiosity became indeed popular, it has been folklorized und is still an integral part of Hungarian peasant culture. Considering all these we can conclude that the religiosity manifested in the veneration of Blessed Virgin Mary in Hungarian folk culture is in fact metaphysical, und can even be said to be mystical considering in it the so called immanent mystic rooted in life. The changing of folk religion in our age is mostly the conflict of content und form in individuals, und the question of alienation from the moving spint of earlier traditional communities. The task of ministry should be to help over this critical period