Playing the Passion in Csíksomlyó in the 18th-19th centuries

According to tradition, the Franciscan monks settled on Csíksomlyó in the 13th century. They founded a school, where dramatic performances played an important role in their educational system. These performances had the role to cultivate the religious feelings of the fervent faithful and to educate them morally.

Between 1773 and 1780 the Franciscan monks and their students played dramatic plays taking advantage of the arrival of thousands of pilgrims to the Mary of Csíksomlyó.

The school plays varied greatly in subject:

• dramatisation of biblical events
• the lives of the saints
• Hungarian histories
• exhortations from social life.

The settings of the performances have also changed:

• the theatre built by the Mary Company, which was next to the school
• the open air at the crossroads of Jesus Pass. 

The playwrights were pastors, whose aim was to strengthen believers in the faith, reprove sin and practice the virtues. There is singing in almost every play, and dancing in one.

The performers of the plays are deacons, rectors, poets, parvista maiors, principists, grammatists and syntaxists.

Manuscripts that have survived:

I. Passion 47 pieces.
II. Comic Actions 7 pieces, Tragic Actions 6 pieces
III. (The title of the third volume is missing) 8 pieces

The last performance for which we have records was in 1841. This was probably, with the achalme of a Christmas pageant.

(P.S. Data based on Ferenc Szlávik and Árpád Fülöp.)

Passion play at Csíksomlyon in the 20th century

An attempt at a reconstruction based on paintings by Mihály Munkácsy on Pentecost 1946. “Living pictures” were performed, still scenes. Actors are girls and boys of the sculpture.

Choir director: Fr. Elemér, Sister Emerika Vincés, music teachers

There are old photographs (Mrs. Hugó Hirsch, Mrs. Imréné Rafay) in the possession of Uncle Bandi Márkus.