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The Szekler Sabbatarians (in
Transylvanian Saxon The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ...
: (Siebenbürgen) Sambatianer; in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
: Siebenbürgische Sabbatianer; in Hungarian: Szombatosok, zombatosok, sabbatariusok, zsidózók, Şomrei Sabat) were a religious group in
Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
and
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croat ...
between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries who held Unitarian and
judaizing Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...
beliefs.


History

The Magyar Sabbatarians arose among Transylvanian Unitarians, led by the Matthias Vehe's followers András Eőssi and Simon Péchi who founded the Sabbatarians 1588, after
Ferenc Dávid Ferenc Dávid (also rendered as ''Francis David'' or ''Francis Davidis''; born as Franz David Hertel, c. 1520 – 15 November 1579) was a Unitarian preacher from Transylvania, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, and the lea ...
died in prison and the Unitarian church formalised on a non-Sabbatarian line. Initially they believed Jesus to be the messiah, but a human rather than divine messiah. Gradually they passed to read only the
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
and to celebrate
Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
's feasts, follow dietary laws, and a strict observance of
seventh-day Sabbath The seventh-day Sabbath, observed from Friday evening to Saturday evening, is an important part of the beliefs and practices of seventh-day churches. These churches emphasize biblical references such as the ancient Hebrew practice of beginning a ...
, but not circumcision. Most of their followers were of Székely ethnicity and had experienced periods of tolerance and persecution. On May 23, 1621, Simon Péchi, the Chancellor of Transylvania was dismissed and arrested for political reasons at the order of
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
Gabriel Bethlen Gabriel Bethlen ( hu, Bethlen Gábor; 15 November 1580 – 15 November 1629) was Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629 and Duke of Opole from 1622 to 1625. He was also King-elect of Hungary from 1620 to 1621, but he never took control of t ...
. On September 29 of the following year, the Transylvanian Diet made a law against the Judaizers. Thirteen years later, on May 13, 1635, the Diet set the explicit deadline of Christmas Day 1635 for the Sabbatarians to convert to one of the four accepted Christian religions of the Principality. When the great persecution began in 1635 they numbered 20,000 members. Starting May 23, 1638, Sabbatarian believers were tortured and their writings confiscated in Kolozsvár and Marosvásárhely. On July 7, the trials started in Dés. All property of the convicted was confiscated, and they were sentenced to prison and, by the decree of Prince
George I Rákóczi George I Rákóczi (8 June 1593 – 11 October 1648) was Prince of Transylvania from 1630 until his death in 1648. Prior to that, he was a leader of the Protestant faction in Hungary and a faithful supporter of Gabriel Bethlen, his predecessor ...
, to hard labor as well. A Sabbatarian goldsmith from Kolozsvár, János Torockai, was condemned to be stoned to death. On July 14, Simon Péchi was sentenced to prison and died next year. The believers had to practice their Jewish religion in secret for the next 230 years, while pretending to be Catholic or Unitarian, so their numbers were in the hundreds only when their conversion to Judaism was allowed from 1868 to 1874. At the insistence of Dr. Beck, the Bucharest rabbi, József Bánóczi and Prof.
Wilhelm Bacher Wilhelm Bacher ( hu, Bacher Vilmos; yi, בִּנְיָמִין־זְאֵב בּאַככֿר, he, בִּנְיָמִין־זְאֵב בכר ''Benjamin Ze'ev Bacher''; 12 January 1850 – 25 December 1913)Bözödújfalu ( Bezidu Nou in Romanian) and set up schools. In a few generations, most Sabbatarians were absorbed into the Jewish community. In the 1910 census, 120 people out of the 679 inhabitants of Bözödújfalu confessed to be Jewish. During the Holocaust, first, the Sabbatarians were given exemption from the Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1941. But in April 1944, during the ghettoization, they were also herded to the ghettos. The local priest of Bözödújfalu hurried to the SS commandant and proved to him that the Sabbatarians are originally not from the Jewish "race". But there were numerous intermarriages between the Sabbatarians and Jews in the preceding decades. So the priest was able to take out some people from the ghettos, while others were soon sent to Auschwitz. The surviving Sabbatarians emigrated to Israel after the war.


Cultural references

The Magyar writer
Zsigmond Kemény Baron Zsigmond Kemény (June 12, 1814December 22, 1875) was a Hungarian author. Life and work Kemény was born in Alvincz, Principality of Transylvania, Austrian Empire (today Vințu de Jos, Romania) to a distinguished noble family, but famil ...
wrote about the sect leader, Simon Pechi, in his ''A rajongók'', "The Devoted" (1858).


See also

*
Subbotniks Subbotniks ( rus, Субботники, p=sʊˈbotnʲɪkʲɪ, "Sabbatarians") is a common name for adherents of Russian religious movements that split from Sabbatarian sects in the late 18th century. The majority of Subbotniks were converts ...
* Abrahamites *
Khalyzians The Chalyzians or Khalyzians (Arabic: ''Khalis'', Khwarezmian: ''Khwalis'', Byzantine Greek: ''Χαλίσιοι, Khalisioi'', Magyar: ''Káliz'') were a people mentioned by the 12th-century Byzantine historian John Kinnamos in Halych. Kinnamos ...
*
Kabar The Kabars ( el, Κάβαροι), also known as Qavars (Qabars) or Khavars were Khazar rebels who joined the Magyar confederation possibly in the 9th century as well as the Rus' Khaganate. Sources The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII is the ...


References

* Dán Róbert. Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó 1987. * Kovács András: ''Vallomás a székely szombatosok perében.'' Bukarest: Kriterion, 1982. ''(Részletes, XIX-XX. századi bibliográfiával.)'' * Kovács András: ''Útfélen fejfa.'' Budapest-Bukarest: Balassi-Kriterion, 1995. * Kovács András: ''Mondjatok káddist egy székely faluért.'' Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia, 1997. * Kovács András: ''Az erdélyi szombadosság nyomában.'' Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia, 1999. * ''Bözödújfalvi szombatosok szertartási és imádságos könyve.'' Közzéteszi és a bevezetőt írta: Kovács András. Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia, 2000. * Béla Pomogáts
Jews by Choice
' - review of Géza Szávai book. * Gellérd, Judit.
Spiritual Jews of Szekler Jerusalem: A Four-Centuries History of Transylvanian Szekler (Székely) Sabbatarianism
' * Géza Szávai. ''Székely Jeruzsálem (Székely Jerusalem)''. Budapest, Pont Kiadó, 2000. 442 pp * Eisler, Ar Erdélyi Zsidók Multjából, Klausenburg, 1901. * Kohn, Samuel (Rabbi). ''A Szombatosok, Torténetük, Dogmatikájuk, és Irodalmuk'', Budapest, 1888. English edition ''The Sabbatarians in Transylvania''. 1896 * H. Hazai, ''Munkálatok a Szombatosokról'', Budapest 1903; * Möckel,Gerhard. "Die Sabbatarier von Bözödujfalu: Ein Kapitel Siebenbürgischer Toleranz- und Intoleranzgeschichte". In ''Kirche und Israel'' 12, 1997, S. 65–71 * Päschel, Dietmar. ''Christliche Sabbatlieder – Eine hymnologische und ekklesiologische Problemanzeige'' . * Bereznay András. ''Erdély történetének atlasza'', 2011. Section 46. {{refend Groups who converted to Judaism Religion in Transylvania Unitarianism Seventh-day denominations Székelys