Confirmation 200 years ago in Bácska. The reception of Archbishop Péter Klobusiczky and the confirmation ceremony in Baja in 1824

Abstract

Péter Klobusiczky, the Archbishop of Kalocsa, who was inaugurated in 1822, visited Baja as one of the first stops of his visitation and tour of the diocese that lasted until 1832 – even before the county seat, Zombor. The new Archbishop of Kalocsa was greeted with a lavish ceremony in Baja. Part of this was the illumination of the town, which was not usual in Bácska in that era for visitations of the archbishop. There are also few surviving records of chronogram format greeting poems. But were two of these at the Baja illumination. He was welcomed at the shooting club with a board bearing his coat of arms and a poem. The Baja militia, or uniform-wearing vigilantes, founded in 1802, also paid homage to the archbishop every day with gunfire, and on several occasions they even fired their mortars.
No contemporary newspaper reports of the 1824 celebrations in Baja have survived, although other celebrations held during the archbishop’s visitations in Bácska are presented in contemporary newspapers. The events in Baja were preserved in the municipality’s records. During his four-day stay, he visited the gymnasium, the Franciscan monks, the Greek Orthodox church, the newly built barracks and also several local noblemen. His host was János Horváth from Szentgyörgy, the tenant of the Baja manor. At the parish, Abbot Mátyás Radicsevits welcomed him with breakfast and a festive lunch. In three days, the elderly archbishop carried out the confirmation of 3810 people. In the records, the events of the four days of the visit were documented in detail with a historiographic intent. This description is also an important source for the history of two associations in Baja, the vigilantes and the shooting club.
A poem and an object also commemorate the archbishop’s visit in 1824. An elegy by János Jung printed in Szeged and a shooting board in the Türr István Museum in Baja.