Susanna Lorántffy

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Susanna Lorántffy , Hungarian Lorántffy Zsuzsanna, (* around 1600 in Ónod ; † April 18, 1660 in Sárospatak , Kingdom of Hungary ) was a supporter of the Reformation and benefactress as well as the wife of Georg I. Rákóczi .

Susanna Lorántffy, the 'Protestant Queen of Transylvania'

Life

Origin and youth

Very little is known about Susanna Lorántffy's résumé. We did not even get her exact date of birth. Susanna Lorántffy was the daughter of Michael Lorántffy (ung. Lorántffy Mihály) and his first wife Barbara Zeleméri (ung. Zeleméri Borbála). The two sisters Elisabeth and Maria also came from this connection. The father was a large landowner and one of the most influential and wealthy aristocrats in Semplin County . The mother died early († 1609) and so the father married Katharina Andrássy (Hungarian Andrássy Kata) after the year of mourning in 1610, according to the customs of the time. A daughter, Katharina, was also born in this marriage. Four years later, the father died suddenly and unexpectedly on November 26, 1614.

Years of marriage

In 1616, Susanna Lorántffy, only about 16 years old, married Georg I. Rákóczi, who was then head clan of Borsod County , who was also the castle captain of Ónod Castle . Contrary to the customs of the time, this connection was not a “marriage of convenience”, but a love marriage that lasted for 32 years, up to the death of Rákóczi. When her husband was elected Prince of Transylvania in 1630 , the family's headquarters were moved to Karlsburg . Nevertheless, Susanna stayed again and again in her castle Sárospatak - which she brought into the marriage as a dowry. She had this castle expanded and furnished it splendidly. She was an excellent gardener (her so-called “flower garden” in Sárospatak Castle is considered to be one of the most beautiful gardens in Hungary) and a level-headed and efficient housekeeper.

As a deeply religious Protestant - she was referred to by her contemporaries as a “Calvinist nun” - she lived her faith. For the Rákóczis, the practice of faith was the focus of their lives. Four times a day there was quick devotion and every evening the Bible was read. Every Tuesday, on the day her youngest son Franz died, they fasted. She was a supporter of the Reformed denomination in her homeland, read the Bible regularly, on which she also wrote a commentary on Moses és a Prophaeták (' Moses and the Prophets') in 1641 . In addition, Susanna was an avid supporter of the arts and sciences. Sárospatak received a Protestant Latin school as early as 1631, which flourished under their patronage. It was her goal to develop the school into one of the leading institutions of its kind.

The Rákóczi Castle in Sárospatak

The widow

After the death of her husband in 1648, she moved permanently to the Sárospatak castle. Word of their charity has now spread across the country. Not only did she care for the children of her people, but in 1657 she founded a school for Romanian students. The 'Reformed College of Sárospatak' continued to be an affair of the heart of her, she endowed it with numerous generous foundations. With her younger son Sigismund Rákóczi, who lived with her at Sárospatak Castle, she appointed, among many other numerous scholars, also the important pedagogue Johann Amos Comenius as teacher of the College of Sárospatak, who arrived in 1650.

On April 18, 1660 Susanna Lorántffy died at 10 o'clock in the evening in her castle in Sárospatak. However, her wish to be buried next to her husband in Karlsburg Cathedral did not come true. In troubled times, her daughter-in-law Sophia Báthory ordered the burial in the castle church (now the Catholic St. Elisabeth Church) in Sárospatak.

Reformed College of Sárospatak (courtyard today)

progeny

The following children emerged from his marriage to Georg I. Rákóczi:

reception

Susanna Lorántffy is considered to be the most independent and best educated woman in Hungary in the first half of the 17th century. Susanna Lorántffy is still present in the consciousness of today's people. Numerous schools, squares and streets in Hungary and Transylvania were named after her. Her monuments were erected in her native town of Ónod, in Sárospatak, Tiszaújváros and many other towns. It occupies an important place in Hungarian historiography.

literature

  • Gyula Dolinay: Magyar királyok és hősök arcképcsarnoka (portraits of the Hungarian kings and heroes). Budapest 1883. (Hungarian) (Reprint 1995, ISBN 963-7765-16-6 )
  • Zoltán Hangay: Erdély választot fejedelme Rákóczi Zsigmond (Sigismund Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania). Budapest 1987, ISBN 963-326-363-8 . (Hungarian)
  • Magyar életrajzi lexicon. (Hungarian Biographical Lexicon). Volume 2, Budapest 1982, ISBN 963-05-2499-6 . (Hungarian)
  • Magyarország története 1526–1686 (The History of Hungary 1526–1686), 2 volumes. Budapest 1985, ISBN 963-05-4097-5 . (Hungarian)
  • Anton Klipp: The Rákóczi in Carpathian Yearbook 2014. Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-80-89264-85-8 .
  • Szentmihályiné Szsabó Mária: Lorántffy Zsuzsanna. Budapest 1985, ISBN 963-300-179-X . (Hungarian)

Literary processing

The subject has been dealt with truthfully several times in Hungarian literature.

The writer Szentmihályné Szabó Maria (* 1888, † 1982) wrote a trilogy about it:

  • Lórántffy Zsuzsanna (1938)
  • Örök társak (1938)
  • Zrínyi Ilona (1939)

Zsófia Dénes (* 1885, † 1987) wrote the biographical novel   Zrínyi Ilona (1959) and the Hungarian writer László Passuth (* 1900, † 1979) paid tribute to this period in his book Sasnak körme közöt (1956).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also article ' Women of the Reformation '
  2. ↑ Magyarország története 1526–1686. Volume 2, p. 1567.
  3. ^ Anton Klipp: The Rákóczi. In: Carpathian Yearbook 2014, p. 67.
  4. ↑ Magyarország története 1526–1686. Volume 1, p. 913.
  5. ↑ Magyar életrajzi lexicon. Volume 2, p. 88.
  6. ^ Gyula Dolinay: Magyar királyok ...
  7. ↑ Magyarország története. Volume 2, p. 1718.
  8. ↑ The castle church of Sárospatak has a very eventful past. Sometimes it belonged to the Catholics, then again to the Protestants. The crypt of the church was broken into in 1684 in the course of armed conflict ( second Turkish siege ) by German mercenaries under Starhemberg , the coffins were forcibly opened in search of valuables and the bones of those resting there were scattered throughout the crypt. Only later could the bones be recovered and were buried together in a coffin, as separation no longer seemed possible.
  9. ↑ Hangay ... (pedigree) pp 220-221.
  10. ↑ Magyarország története ... Volume 2, p. 1512.
personal data
SURNAME Lorántffy, Susanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Promoter of the Reformation and benefactor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1600
PLACE OF BIRTH Ónod
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1660
Place of death Sárospatak , Kingdom of Hungary