István Pávai:

Chronology of Moldavian-Hungarian history

1211. Andrew II of Hungary grants the Teutonic Order an area on both sides of the Carpathian Mountains to guard the boarders.

1225. The king expels the Teutonic Knights who were ignoring his overlordship. Instead of them Hungarian border guards arrive, who can be considered the first group of ancestors of present-day Moldavian Hungarians.

1227. With Hungarian clerical and secular help, the Cuman Roman Catholic diocese of Milkó is established in Moldavia (the country of the Cumans at that period) for the pastoral care of the baptized Cumans. The Cuman bishop becomes a member of the Hungarian episcopal conference. To ensure the work of the new bishopric, canons, priests, soldiers and workers move to Moldavia from Hungary.

1234. Pope Gregory IX warns the Hungarian King Béla IV in a letter that many of his Hungarian and German subjects settle among the Vlach people living on the territory of the diocese of Milkó. They convert to Greek Orthodox faith and become one people with the Vlachs.

1342. King Louis I the Great of Hungary organizes a voivodship under the name Kara Bogdania out of his vassal territories to the east of the Carpathians. The name Moldavia appears later.

1371. The Roman Catholic diocese of Szeret is established.

1400-s. Over the course of the century, the majority of the people living in the Moldavian voivodship become Romanian-speaking.

1460. King Matthias Corvinus expels the Hussites from Hungary, who therefore flee to Moldavia. Among three other villages, they found the town of Husz and, at the banks of the Dniestr, Csöbörcsök.

1457-1504. During his reign, Moldavian voivode Stephen the Great repeatedly breaks into Transylvania. The Hungarians captured on his expeditions he settles in Moldavia.

1466. The Hussites in Tatros copy the Hungarian Bible translation known as Huszita Biblia.

1479-1493. Because of the cruelties of Transylvanian voivode Stephen Báthory, a great number of Székelys flees to Moldavia.

1534-1572. The Franciscan monasteries of Moldavia get their Guardians from the mother house of Csíksomlyó.

1571. The vicar of Tatros converts the Hungarian Hussites of the Husz and Románvásár area back to Catholic faith.

1574-1591. The chancellor of the Moldavian voivode Petru Şchiopu puts the number of Moldavian Hungarians at 20.000.

1597. The Moldavian Catholics’ bishop moves his see to Bákó.

1600-1606. During the reign of voivode Ieremia Movilă, Bernard Querini finds 1591 Catholic, predominantly Hungarian families in the region. He counts 10.704 souls in 15 towns and 16 villages. He explains the decrease in population with the devastation caused by the Mongol invasion. The episcopal throne of Bákó falls into Polish hands for 200 years.

1607. Extract from the protocols of the Diet of Marosvásárhely: „In the past, countless indigent people ran to Moldavia because of the dearth and decay of the poor country”.

1612. The Diet of Szeben orders that „the roads and pathes to Moldavia must be guarded” and „people who want to leave the poverty in Transylvania with their cattles and wives shouldn't be allowed to pass; they must be stopped and sent back to their lord”.

1622. The Pope pronounces Moldavia mission territory.

1634-1653. Voivode Vasile Lupu asks Rome for spiritual leaders for 12.000 Catholic believers.

1641. Apostolic vicar Peter Diodat writes about the Moldavian Catholic Hungarian settlements and their population in a detailed report.

1648. Marcus Bandinus, the Apostolic administrator of Moldavia, writes a more detailed report than Peter Diodat about his visitation for the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. The people of Tatros ask Archbishop Bandinus not to send missionaries who are not capable of speaking Hungarian.

1670. Archbishop Petrus Parčević reports: „Almost the entire Catholic population of Moldavia is Hungarian, speaks Hungarian and clamours for Hungarian priests”. They don't understand the Romanian sermons and they are not able to confess in Romanian, that's why Parčević wishes the Franciscans of Csíksomlyó to maintain the missionary service in Moldavia. The Vatican denies this plans stating that Moldavia belongs under the supervision of the Polish Catholic Church.

1671. In a letter to the Sacred Congregation, Szabófalva and the Magyars of five other parishes complain about the missionaries' abuses and announce that they will put themselves under the supervision of the Orthodox bishop if the problem remains unsolved.

1707. The greater part of the Kuruc troops defending the Székely Land flee from the army of Austrian general Rabutin. The noblemen fearing the retaliation also join them. An opportunity to return is not given before 1711.

1764. The Austrian imperial troops start a cannonade on the Székelys meeting at the boarders of Csíkmadéfalva during nighttime peace. Together with the intimidated inhabitants of the surrounding area, the survivors of the mass murder flee to Moldavia. A part of them goes even further to the Bukovina, where they found five villages. The others decide to stay and permanently settle among the Moldavian Magyars.

1781. Péter Zöld, the priest of Csíkszentlélek, visits the Hungarian settlements during his escape. In a report to the bishop of Gyulafehérvár he writes: „The missionary fathers are all Italians, who don't speak neither Romanian, nor Hungarian. They serve this nine Hungarian parishes entirely miserable.”

1807. Hammer, the Austrian consul residing in Jászvásár, reports the data of the Moldavian Roman Catholic parishes to Vienna: 10 settlements with 4.182 families and 21.307 inhabitants.

1827. Hammer's successor Lippa reports 50.000 Hungarians.

1851. The Schematism of Moldavia mentions 22 parishes, in 16 of them they speak Hungarian. According to the source, the 22 parishes mean 208 settlements, because each parish served a number of villages.

1866. Josef Salandari, chief of the Moldavian Catholic mission, publishes a bilingual (Romanian-Hungarian) catechism in Jászvásár.

1884. The mission is closed, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jászvásár is formed.

1889. Bishop Camilli of Jászvásári writes in his Pastoral letter: „We command that in the churches the mandatory prayers of the encyclical shall not be said in any other language but Romanian”.

1898. The Great Geographical Lexicon of Romania is published in Bucharest. It says: „The district of Bákó is mostly Romanian, […] but we can find old settlements of the landworking people which have a Magyar origin and which preserved their language and religion […] to this day. There are settlements with hundreds of families where the people are not able to say even a word in Romanian, for example Forrófalva and Klézse.”

1905. Radu Rosetti's article entitled On Magyars and the the Moldavian Catholic Diocese is published in the yearbook of the Roman Academy in Bucharest. Rosetti estimates the number of Moldavian Hungarians at 50-60.000 and adds that „it is highly probable that there was a considerable number of Hungarians settling in the Szeret and Tatros valleys when the Moldavian State was established [in 1342]”.

1915. The Hungarians of Lujzakalagor ask for permission to use the Hungarian language in church. Bishop Camilli answers: „The claimants should know that the language of the people in Romania is Romanian and cannot be any other. It is unjust to ones nation and shameful to ones person, if somebody would speak a foreign language like Hungarian in this homeland.”

1938. The text of a local announcement: „We, the mayor of the municipality of Ferdinand [Újfalu], hereby inform the people of the village that according to the 7621. decree of the prefect of Bákó County it is not allowed to speak any other language but Romanian in the town hall or any other public place. Services in Roman Catholic churches must be held in no other language but Romanian and Latin. The priests and cantors must not sing the hymns in any other language but Romanian and Latin... We severely punish everybody who contravenes this orde.”

1940. On the occasion of moving the five Hungarian villages of the Bucovina to Hungary, about one thousand Moldavian Magyars decide to migrate as well.

1946-1947. More than a hundred Hungarian schools emerge in Moldavia. They all get closed in the following years. The Hungarian school of Leszpéd works until 1960.

(Sources: Benda Kálmán (szerk.): Moldvai csángómagyar okmánytár. Budapest, 1989: 33-34;
Domokos Pál Péter: ...édes Hazámnak akartam szolgálni... Budapest, 1979: 35-96;
Faragó József - Jagamas János: Moldvai csángó népdalok és népballadák. Bukarest, 1954: 13.)
 

source: http://www.pavai.hu/

---