Konvertiti a konverzie v uhorských sirotincoch 18. storočia
Converts and Conversion in Hungarian Orphanages in the Eighteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: In contrast to the lands west of the Hungarian border, where constitutional care for orphans came about as a priority as part of the measures for elimination of street begging and support for factory production, in Hungary the reasons for establishing the first orphanages tended to be confessional. In a country where several Christian denominations existed legally alongside one another, institutional care for orphans became part of the confessional struggle. All four institutes, three private and one state, which were founded in Hungary in the second half of the eighteenth century, were designated for orphans who by means of constitutional care were to be strengthened in the Catholic faith or converted. Apart from orphans, children of living parents were accepted into Hungarian orphanages, particularly if they came from confessionally mixed marriages and who, against the law, had not been raised as Catholics. Orphanages specifically were tools for encouraging the Catholic raising of children in Kőszeg and Tomášikovo. The institution in Kőszeg, administered as of the year 1750 by members of the Society of Jesus, was primarily, according to the foundation document, designated for Protestant orphans or converts, in order to draw them away from their Protestant family environment and provide them with a Catholic upbringing. Protestant children of living parents, however, were also brought to the orphanage for various reasons up to the year 1763, with the goal of obtaining them for the Catholic confession. Poor orphaned converts in particular were to be accepted into the royal orphanage in Tomášikovo in accordance with the will of its founder. In reality, however, the majority of the children found their way into the institution due to their status as poor orphans, although there were also cases of voluntary or forced placement of children into constitutional care for religious reasons.

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