p. 132
of the Italian Bishop Paolo Sardi in
Moldavia
(1843-1848)
Rafael-Dorian Chelaru,
National Archives of Romania,
Bucharest
The
Italian Paolo Sardi who activated as a Visitor General (Visitator Generalis) of the apostolic mission from Moldavia
(established by the Sacred Congregation Propaganda
Fide after 1622) between 1843 and 1848 represented one of the leading
figures of the Catholic missionarism in 19th century Moldavia. His
activity was very little studied in the relevant historiography dealing with
the history of the Catholicism in Moldavia. One can trace here only one
exception: Petru Tocãnel, a Romanian Franciscan monk who dealt with the history
of the Franciscan missionarism in Moldavia, can be considered as the most
important secondary source for this issue[1].
Petru Tocanel’s work on Paolo Sardi (one must understand here especially the
chapter VIII entitled Soluzione della
questione ungherese, p. 327-392, from Storia
della chiesa cattolica in Romania) is to be regarded until nowadays as the
most exhaustive and comprehensive. Therefore, it is by no means our intention
to recall all the details concerning the activity of Paolo Sardi. On the
contrary, the main goal of this article is to provide some of the main
documents concerning Sardi’s activity in general and these documents – that are
presented in extenso - are intended
to “speak” by themselves. Some short considerations on Sardi’s activity and its
reception in the historiography, however, are needed to be presented here.
p. 133
The
main initiatives of bishop Paolo Sardi in order to make the Catholic missionarism
in Moldavia efficient can be traced as five. The first initiative is
represented by his attempt to replace all the Hungarian missionaries from
Moldavia with Italians, starting from the fact that, according to Sardi, almost
all Hungarian missionaries proved to have had a “nationalistic” attitude and,
moreover, an immoral behaviour. Secondly, Sardi’s efforts were focused on
solving the difficult problem of providing sufficient number of priests for the
new Catholic parishes emerging throughout the Moldavian territory. Within this,
it is worth to be mentioned his continuous preoccupations in ensuring the
Catholic parishes with new churches (preferably stone built edifices)[2].
The third initiative was to create a local (indigenous) Catholic clerical structure
able not only to replace the foreign missionaries sent from Rome or
Constantinople, but also presumably to put the basis for a future local and
autonomous Catholic Church. The fourth direction followed by Sardi was to
ensure the strict observation of the monastic rule of the Franciscan order of
the Conventuals. This was regarded as the most appropriate solution for solving
the delicate problem of immorality witnessed in the behaviour of many
missionaries. The last – but not the least – was to contribute to the smooth
integration of the catholic clerical and lay structures in the Moldavian
society mainly by maintaining privileged good relations with the Moldavian
authorities e.g. the ruling prince Mihail Sturdza and prince Alexandru Ghica,
but also with the clerical orthodox structures (the metropolitan and the
bishops).
To
our opinion, unlike Tocanel’s approach, Paolo Sardi was less preoccupied by the
problem of the Hungarian missionaries, although it appeared as the most
spectacular aspect of his activity within the Moldavian catholic mission as
Sardi was the first Catholic missionary who clearly expressed his intention to
expel all the Hungarians from the mission – some of his letters sent to the
Sacred Congregation in 1843 and 1844 witness a rare violent and sarcastic tone
against the morality of most Hungarian missionaries activating in Moldavia in
the 1840s. His main efforts, however, were to be focused in the direction of
establishing a local clerical hierarchy. This fact can be demonstrated in the
light of the documents enclosed here. One reason is that from the very
beginning of his administration Sardi had to face the problem of lacking
missionaries able to serve the Hungarian speaking Catholics from some areas
from Western Moldavia (the areas inhabited by the Csàngos). Despite his
efforts, it was obvious since the beginning that replacing all the Hungarian
Franciscan missionaries who left Moldavia with Italians was truly impossible at
least for the next decades. Thus, he had to accept other Hungarian missionaries
to be sent by the Provincial of the Hungarian Franciscan Province of the
Conventuals, Romàn Szabo (the convention established in 1825 between the
Franciscan Province of Hungary and the apostolic mission from Moldavia and
harshly rejected at the beginning by Sardi was to be abolished only in 1851 by
the Provincial of Hungary due to the fact that Sardi’s successor, Antonio de
Stefano, simply ceased to pay the due money for the Hungarian
p. 134
missionaries sent in
Moldavia[3]).
Sardi himself seems to have realized the importance of establishing an
indigenous Catholic clergy as the best long term solution in order to ensure a
real “autonomy” of the Moldavian Catholic church in relation not only with the
Franciscan Provinces from Hungary or Poland or Constantinople but also with the
Sacred Congregation. As early as June 1843 he wrote to the Prefect of the
Sacred Congregation about his intention to build three more rooms at his
residence from Iaºi, which were intended to serve as school and dormitory for
three Italians who had to learn Hungarian in order to replace the Hungarian
missionaries[4]. Two years
later, he managed to found a Catholic seminary in Iaºi (in 1845) – the first
Catholic seminary at that time in Moldavia – where six young pupils were studying
in the first year (1846) under the guidance of a Polish missionary, Dionisie
Zachaczewski[5]. In 1846
their number doubled and Sardi selected two of the alumni who were sent to
Rome, at the St. Anton College (which was under the patronage of the Sacred
Congregation). Only one alumnus returned in Moldavia as priest, George Bauer[6].
Sardi’s
initiative to found a Catholic seminary for the formation of the local Catholic
clergy was not just the result of his personal views and considerations. The
Saint Siege itself was convinced about the necessity of such enterprise meant
to ensure the stabilization of the Catholicism in the non-Catholic countries.
On November the 23rd 1845, pope Gregory XVI confirmed a general
instruction addressed to all superiors of the Catholic missions in the areas
dominated by non-Catholic majorities in which it was stipulated the necessity
of establishing a local clergy able to replace the missionary structure[7].
In
our opinion, the aspect of controlling the observance of the monastic rule was
to be the corner stone of Sardi’s policy in the Moldavian Catholic mission. His
real “obsession“ concerning the morality of many of his missionaries can be
noticed in his letters. This is in fact the reason of his impetuous animosity
towards the Hungarian missionaries, and not the problem of language. Sardi
himself was aware of the fact that the Hungarian language was needed by all
means in several parishes from Moldavia (at a certain moment speaking about the
replacing of a Hungarian missionary from Focºani, he exclaimed: “ma che sostituire
a suo luogo?”[8]).
His first thought was to oblige three Italians to learn Hungarian in order to
keep the Holy Mass and to sermon for the Hungarian-speaking parishioners and
thus
„a grado a
p. 135
grado ci disfaremo degli
ungari con loro sequele”.[9]
Within this context Sardi also tried to determine the Sacred Congregation to
abolish the convention from 1825, but with no success. Although the Sacred
Congregation (and also Giacinto Gualerni, the Procurator general of the Franciscan
missions) agreed with Sardi’s appreciations concerning the immorality of most
of the missionaries sent by the Franciscan Province of Hungary, it was simply
not possible at that moment to find a suitable solution to get Hungarian
speaking missionaries from elsewhere but not from Hungary or Transylvania[10].
It is a fact that Sardi persistently invoked in his argumentation also the
“chauvinist” and “nationalistic” attitudes of some Hungarian missionaries,
attitudes that allegedly determined hostility from the Orthodox majority and
created “great scandals” within the Catholic communities. Regardless the
veracity of Sardi’s information concerning these issues, it is more important
to be stressed the real stake of such accusations. At the beginning of the 19th
century the Sacred Congregation passed the responsibility of protection of the
Catholic missionaries and communities from Moldavia to the Imperial Court of
Vienna[11].
Therefore, the Austrian diplomats from Iaºi were acquired a position in many
respects almost equal to the visitor general of the mission as they are allowed
to interfere in problems such as the personnel of the mission. For example, in
1845 the Austrian diplomatic agent, Eisenbach, decisively contributed in the
expulsion from Moldavia of the Franciscan monk Könya.[12]
In 1843 when Sardi proposed to the papal nuncio from Vienna to abolish the
convention from 1825 the Austrian secretary of state, Attemfals, supported him,
as Vienna did not have the slightest intention to encourage or simply to tolerate
the development of any manifestation of Hungarian nationalism, even when the
Hungarian speaking Catholics from Moldavia were involved[13].
Thus, Sardi’s accusations were sufficient arguments for Vienna to agree with
the expulsion of all Hungarian missionaries from Moldavia. Only the conscience
of the common confessional affiliation could prevent Sardi and Eisenbach from
adopting radical measures[14].
p. 136
In
this context, several of Petru Tocanel’s considerations and appreciations on
the real motivations of some of Sardi’s initiatives concerning the problem of
the Hungarian missionaries in Moldavia, however, lack scientific approach and
witness an obvious “nationalistic” type of discourse. In the light of Tocanel’s
evaluation, Sardi should be regarded as the bishop who managed to put an end to
the Hungarian attempts to turn all the Romanian Catholics from Moldavia into
Hungarians through the language argument. Moreover, Sardi would have decisively
contributed to the domination of the Romanian language not only in the mission
but also within the Catholic communities, no matter what was their ethnic
background. Tocanel stressed and overestimated Sardi’s affirmations concerning
the predominance of the Romanian speaking Catholics, without taking into
account the importance of the Hungarian speaking communities, which seem to
“have been lost on the road”. Moreover, Tocanel did not seem to be interested
in the accounts of Hungarian scholars concerning the problem of the Moldavian
Csángos: he simply did not recall any of them[15].
Moreover, although Sardi’s activity was not focused mainly on the so-called
Hungarian problem (la questione ungherese
according to Tocanel), but rather on the improving of the efficiency in the
missionary activity from Moldavia stressing the importance of preserving the
morality, Tocanel, however, consistently underlined Sardi’s hostility towards
the Hungarian missionaries and made a curious separation between Sardi’s
efforts to replace the Hungarian monks with Italians or indigenous missionaries
and the rest of his activity. In fact, the whole chapter dedicated to Paolo
Sardi’s activity is entitled La soluzione
della questione ungherese as if Sardi’s importance within the general
history of the Catholicism in Moldavia lays only in this aspect
Tocanel’s
interpretation concerning Paolo Sardi’s activity is similar to Iosif M. Pal’s
opinion related to Sardi. In his book, Originea
catolicilor din Moldova ºi franciscanii pastorii lor de veacuri, Pal
dedicated only one phrase to Sardi’s activity in the Apostolic Vicariate of
Moldavia: “He protected the Romanian language against the Hungarian priests, who
were planning to Magyarize even more the Catholic villages.”[16]
The documents
presented in the annex try to shed a different light on Sardi’s activity.
Tocanel quoted most of them indirectly in his work. All documents are
unpublished and were selected from the microfilms brought from Vatican to the
Romanian National Archives. They were arranged chronologically. The square
brakes
p. 137
and the question marks are
conventional meant to indicate either uncertain lectures or missing words or
word parts.
For this material, permission is granted for electronic copying,
distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use.
Whether you intend to utilize it in scientific purposes, indicate the
source: either this web address or the Annuario. Istituto Romeno di cultura
e ricerca umanistica 5 (2003), edited by ªerban Marin, Rudolf Dinu, Ion
Bulei and Cristian Luca, Bucharest, 2004
No permission is granted for commercial use.
© ªerban Marin, March 2004, Bucharest, Romania
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[1] There
are very few articles and studies concerning the activity of Paolo Sardi
(officially he was appointed as bishop of Verea by the pope Gregory XVI). These
articles refer shortly on Sardi’s activity in Moldavia, sometimes mentioning
only some of his initiatives. Among these historical works the most important
are N. Iorga, Studii ºi documente privitoare la istoria
românilor II. Acte relative la istoria cultului catolic în Principate,
Bucharest: I. V. Socec, 1901: 219-225 (here are published partially some of the
documents concerning Sardi’s activity in Moldavia. These documents were to be
found in the archive of the Catholic bishopric of Iaºi); Guilielmus Schmidt, Romano-catholici per Moldaviam episcopatus er rei romano-catholicae res
gestae, Budapest, 1887: 149-150; Bonaventura Morariu, Series
chronologica episcoporum ac praefectorum apostolicorum missionis fratrum
minorum conventualium in Moldavia (Romania) durante saeculo XIX, Vatican,
1942: 10-11; Petru Tocanel,
“Franciscanii minori conventuali ºi limba românã”, Buna vestire 3 (1972): 27-30; idem,
Storia della chiesa cattolica in Romania,
III, Padua: Mesaggero, 1965: 327-392; Iosif M. Petru Pal, Originea
catolicilor din Moldova ºi franciscanii, pastorii lor de veacuri,
Sãbãoani-Roman, 1942: 154; Fabian Doboº,
Sãbãoani file de istorie, Iaºi: Presa
bunã, 2002: 85; Iosif Simon, Franciscanii
minori conventuali. Provincia Sf. Iosif din Moldova, Bacãu: Serafica, 1998:
291-297, 300; Iosif Gabor, Dicþionarul comunitãþilor catolice din
Moldova, Bacãu: Conexiuni, 1995: 22, 48, 95-96, 103, 110-111, 151, 225,
292; Anton Despinescu, Scurt istoric al bisericii catolice din
Moldova, Iaºi, 1995: 44-45; Ferenc Poszoni,
Ceangãii din Moldova, Cluj: Asociaþia
Etnograficã “Kriza János”, 2002: 39, 76-77.
[2] See
Gabor, op. cit.: 22, 48,
95-96, 103, 110-111, 151, 225, 292.
[3] The
convention from 1825 stipulated that the Catholic mission from Moldavia had to
pay each year 100 Roman scuds in exchange for six Hungarian Franciscan
missionaries sent by the Provincial of Hungary. The convention was established
on July the 6th 1825 at Cluj between Rudolf Studer, Minister of the
Franciscan Province of Hungary, and Giovanni Paroni, Visitor general of the
Catholic apostolic mission from Moldavia. Román Szabo abolished the convention
in 1851 from financial reasons.
[4] See
the letter sent from Iaºi, June the 28th 1843.
[5] See
on the seminar Morariu, op.
cit. 10; Doboº, op. cit.:
85; Gabor, op. cit.: 151; Despinescu, op. cit.: 45; Tocanel, Storia, cit.: 347,
351.
[6] See
on George Bauer as alumnus of the seminar from Iaºi in Gabor, op. cit.: 151.
[7] See
Tocanel, op. cit.: 354.
[8] See
the letter from June the 28th 1843.
[9] Ibidem.
[10] See
Tocanel, op. cit.: 339
(The Sacred Congregation urged the papal nuncio from Vienna to realise a
compromise between the Franciscan Provincial of Hungary and Paolo Sardi in
order to be ensured a sufficient number of Hungarian missionaries for
Moldavia).
[11] See
Tocanel, op. cit.: 135.
[12] Ibidem:
340.
[13] Ibidem:
333.
[14] See
the letter from April the 30th 1845: Sardi and Eisenbach
successfully opposed to the decision of the Moldavian Chancellery (Divan) to
expel all the Hungarian missionaries from Moldavia: “Non ha guari che mi è
stata comunicata da questo Signor Agente imperiale una nota confidenziale
ricevuta dalla cancelleria di questo principato nella quale s’intiene
l’espulsione dei sacerdoti ungari dimoranti in questa missione perchè
disturbatori della pace, perchè sussorroni e sovvertitori della pubblica
tranquillità e di sostituire agli ungari altrettanti sacerdoti italiani
a cui il governo locale ha maggior stima e confidenza. A tale innovazione
cagionata dall’imprudenza del mentovato esploratore Giovanni Iernes ho fatto le
mie osservazioni di comune accordo con questo signor imperiale agente
perchè ha dell’insinuazione e dell’assolutismo ruteno, perchè
tale principio, abbenchè sembra lusinghevole in apparenza, ofende
l’autorità ecclesiastica, a cui appartiene indipendentemente il
provvedere i suoi popoli nei bisogni spirituali nelle libere elezione dei
propri pastori senza mai avvincolarsi nei propri diritti. Piacquero al signor
agente tali miei rimarchi di un ben presto ne fece uso con tutto lo zelo onde
rinpedire ogni reazione nel mio esercizio del ministero vescovile presto nel
principe regnante, che si compiacque d’aggradire a condizione però che
il vescovo debbe essere risponsabile tenendo al dovere li religiosi dissidenti
dissipando ogni spirito di partito.”
[15] See
for the most recent and exhaustive approaches on the problem of the Hungarian
Csángos from Moldavia Hungarian
Csángós in Moldavia. Essays on the past and present of the Hungarian Csángós in
Moldavia (ed. by László Diószegi),
Budapest: Teleki László Foundation – Pro
Minoritate Foundation, 2002.
[16] See Pal, op. cit.: 154.
Pal’s book tries to argue the pure Romanian origin of the Catholic communities
from Moldavia as early as from the Middle Ages.