This year, on the second weekend of
November, a group of thirty Unitarians from Barot went to Deva, to remember the
founder of their religion. The event was organized for the seventeenth time by
The High Authority Office of the Hungarian
Unitarian Church
and the Francis David Unitarian Youth Group
On Saturday we arrived to Deva
around 1 pm. We were admiring the castle
of Deva which is towering
between the clouds. We began our way up the stairs with great excitement. That
excitement disappeared after getting on the top of the stairs, because the
remainder of the road was a muddy trail. After the easier looking walking the
end of the road surprised us with some more stairs, this time wood, towering
high near the walls of the castle. Not really enjoyable for those who are
afraid of heights, also the view at the top of the stairs compensated us for
every fatigue and fear. We didn’t see many people on our way up to the castle,
but when we arrived in the castle more than a thousand Unitarians began to sing
the 43rd Unitarian song. We have arrived just for the beginning of
the event. I was happy to see so many Unitarian youth, adults and elder people
answering for the call of Francis David. We discovered a lot of familiar faces
in the crowd, members of different youth groups and ministers. I felt like I
arrived home, even though I was hundreds of miles away from my house. It was
the best feeling to be Unitarian.
After singing together, four young
ministers preached, Levente Lőrincz, László Major, Imola Molnár, Tímea
Nagy-Mátéfi. We were praying loud,
unlike our religion. This connected us in a way that cannot be broken. The
bishop of the Hungarian Unitarian Chruch and other invitees greeted the
pilgrims. After the speeches, the students of the Protestant Faculty of the Unitarian Theology Institute made their
presentation. After that candles and torches were burnt, while garlands,
flowers and candles were placed in the former prison cell of Francis David. The
pilgrimage ended with drinking hot tea in the chapel pf the Unitarian
congregation of Deva.
Francis David, the founder of the
Unitarian religion, was born around 1510 at Cluj Napoca, from an industrialist
family. He studied in Ckuj Napoca, Alba Iulia, Brasov
and Wittenberg .
After returning home, as a supporter of the reformation, he was schoolmaster
and preacher at Bistrita, Petres and Cluj Napoca. His purpose of life was to
restore the pure Christianity of Jesus. Transylvania became a land of religious
tolerance, when at Torda, uniquelly in Europe ,
they enacted the free exercise of religion. The main creator of the national
assembly was Francis David. The enemies of religious freedom has taken Francis
David to jail in 1579, until his death, in the castle of Deva
for being a reformer. He died there on
the 15th of November 1579.
Our group slept in the dorms of a
middle school at Deva, from where we went to Sibiu the next morning. There we visited the
renovated main square, the Liars Bridge , the Lutheran Cathedral, than the most
adventurous ones climbed to the top of the Council Tower ,
where the view was spectacular. We got home on Sunday night, all of us tired,
but with a lot of precious experiences.