Konstantinápolyból Temesvárra. Minas Paronean örmény unitus misszionárius viszontagságai Erdélyben (1720−1738)
From Constantinople to Temesvár. The Vicissitudes of Minas Paronean, Armenian Uniate Missionary in Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: Thanks to a limited and outdated body of scholarly literature, both Armenology and history have long reported in rather negative tones about Minas Paronean (1693–1746, Latinised as Minas de Barun), the Armenian Uniate (Catholic) missionary who had been active in Transylvania for a long time. According to this traditional image, the Armenian churchman piled up a heap of scandals within the Armenian community of Transylvania due to his immoral behaviour and practices smelling of heresy. Yet, neglecting the necessary inquiries, old research failed to tackle this problem. Indeed, such works went as far as to suggest that the harmful activities of Minas Paronean had ultimately blocked the possibility for the Apostolic Holy See to fill the office of titular (in partibus infidelium) Armenian Uniate bishopric of Transylvania, which had become vacant through the death of Oxendio Virziresco (1654–1715). In other words, they blamed Minas Paronean for the failure to fill the Armenian Uniate episcopal see. Thus, a truly negative stereotype and myth had been built around his figure. Recent archival research has definitively refuted this seriously biased assessment, however. The aim of the present paper is accordingly to clarify the Transylvanian events and myths connected to the person of Minas Paronean as an Armenian Uniate missionary on the basis of hitherto unexpolred and recently revealed archival material. Last, but not least, the vicissitudes of Minas Paronean offer a more general view of the confessional and historical conditions of Transylvania in the 1720s and 1730s, a period the research of which has been fairly neglected for many years.

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