The monks of Montecassino and Pannonhalma have prayed for each other for more than 800 years. Abbot Uros of Saint Martin and Abbot Adenulfus of Cassino concluded the prayer union in 1212. According to the document recording it – kept in our Archives –, the communities annually pray for each other on 25 January, the Feast of Saint Paul’s Conversion.
Being led by Archabbot Hortobágyi T. Cirill, a delegation of Pannonhalma visited Rome and Montecassino. On 25 January, they joined Pope Francis in the Vespers concluding the oecumenical week of prayer in the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls. The abbot of the Basilica’s Benedictine monastery, Donato Ogliari visited Pannonhalma last year. He preached a sermon in the Hungarian monastery’s 800-year-old church on 15 April.
On the ground floor of the Monastery in Pannonhalma, we make use of five smaller storerooms. One of the baroque cells – the largest – was suitable for housing wheeled carriages to double the store-capacity of documents in this room. According to our plans, the archival documents of the Benedictine schools will be kept here, and – as a part of the restitution process – the documents of 28-running-metre of the notarial archives of the convents of Kapornak and Zalavár will also be deposited here. The shelves sliding along rails has been installed by Vasszer Raktártechnika Kft.
On 26 and 28 November, the library, the archives and the museum received the Archabbey’s co-workers of different branches. In the Archives, not only our office and storeroom were opened, but we also talked about our everyday work and plans. Within the framework of the programme, our colleagues could finally have a look at the most important documents entrusted to our care.
In the autumn, a good number of groups visited our Archives. In addition to school-classes, the sponsors of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the History-Workshop of Eötvös József Collegium, the Association of Young Archivists, the group of the Győr Training Centre of MCC (Matthias Corvinus Collegium), the participants of Meeting for the Ambassadors of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, and the faithful of the parishes related to the Archabbey visited our institution.
Owing to the support of NKA (National Cultural Fund of Hungary), three manuscript maps of our collection of maps have been restored.
The first one is the fee-estate-map of Bakonybél of 1847, the second one is the survey-map of the fee estates and inner area of Nagyécs of 1838 and 1839, respectively. The third one is the agricultural map of a part of Bakonytamási of 1871. The restoration was completed by Ars Alba Bt. of Szentendre.
The Hungarian Historical Society’s Section of Church History, the Centre for Ecclesiastical Collections in Győr and the Brenner János College of Theology started a series of presentations entitled “Evenings of Ecclesiastical History”. The first to give a presentation in the series of programmes was the director of our institution, Tamás Dénesi, who gave a presentation on Abbot Uros, the builder of the church of Pannonhalma 800 years earlier, for those interested in it.
The 800th anniversary of the mediaeval reconstruction and consecration of the Basilica of Saint Martin has been celebrated this year. On 27 August, the jubilee celebration was attended by the illustrious representatives of the Hungarian Catholic Church and those of the Hungarian public life besides the Benedictine family. The solemn liturgy was presided by the present successors of the bishops of Vác and Nyitra who consecrated the church in 1224. The celebration of the Eucharist was led, and the sermon was delivered by Bishop Marton Zsolt.
Within the framework of the Days of Wine-History in Győr, Mathias Corvinus Collegium organised professional conversations on Chapter Hill. On 24 August, one of the panels discussed the brewing traditions of the episcopal and monastic estates with the participation of Nemes Gábor, the head of the Diocesan Archives of Győr, and Dénesi Tamás, the director of the Archabbey’s Archives in Pannonhalma. Last year, in the same programme, in a similar arrangement, they were the very partners in the conversation about the past of ecclesiastical wine-culture.
On the feast of Saint Stephen, Archabbot Hortobágyi T. Cirill awarded the Pro Pannonhalma Prize to Dénesi Tamás, the director of our Archives. On the same festive occasion, the same prize was awarded to Liptai Zsolt, the managing director of the Wine-Cellars of the Pannonhalma Archabbey, and to Demján Sándorné, the benefactress of the Archabbey. The Archabbey of Pannonhalma bestows the prize upon those permanent and casual colleagues, who have contributed to the attainment of the monastery’s intentions significantly and for a considerable time.
