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Document Details : Title: Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka and the Armenian Catholic Church in Transylvania Author(s): NAGY, Kornél Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 43 Date: 2025 Pages: 427-469 DOI: 10.2143/REA.43.0.3295033 Abstract : Monsignor (Msgr.) Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka (Step‘anos Step‘anean Ṙōšk‘ay) (1670-1739), Alumnus of the Seminary called Urban College (Collegium Urbanum) in Rome, was regarded as a good shepherd by the remembrance of the Armenian community in Transylvania. According to the old historical literature in Hungary and Poland, Msgr. Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka, once and for all, has destroyed the root and branch of the Eastern (Monophysite) heresy and schismatism in the Armenian communities in Transylvania. In this manner, he had managed to reconvert the Armenians for the true Catholicism during his pastoral activity and canonical visitation amongst the Armenians in Transylvania done at the behest of the Apostolic Holy See’s authorities (e.g., Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of Faith) in the late 1720s and the early 1730s. However, in recent times, the modern scholarship has radically tinged and undermined this theory or myth. As a consequence of his official correspondence with the Apostolic Holy See’s authorities, throughout his complete ecclesiastical activity, Msgr. Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka had actually protected the Armenians and their Uniate Church in Transylvania from the increasingly fierce ‘Latinisation’ church-policy led by the Roman Catholic (Latin rite) Bishopric of Transylvania. Therefore, this study aims primarily at concentrating upon Msgr. Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka’s relations with the Armenians in Transylvania from churchhistorical point of view, resting upon entirely undiscovered documents kept at archives in Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár), Budapest, Esztergom, Rome, Venice, Vienna, and the Vatican. Finally, as a conclusion, through Msgr. Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka’s ecclesiastical activities and relations, we have received a wide picture of the Armenian church-history in the first third of 18th century in Transylvania, which is still regarded, more or less, as an undiscovered area from an international scholarly point of view. |
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