The life of György Verestói

Contributor

My dissertation presents the life of György Verestói, bishop of the Reformed Church in Transylvania between 1760 and 1765. His life is a representative example of a successful clerical career of his time. The dissertation contains the translation of Verestói’s autobiography from Latin to Hungarian. This autobiographic document dates to the last year of his service (late 1764 or early 1765) and presents the cardinal dates and events of his life. Furthermore, I investigate the activity of György Verestói as a bishop. On one hand, I aimed to reconstruct what kind of duties and authority a bishop had in the middle of the 18th century in Transylvania. On the other hand, I wished to evaluate how Verestói fulfilled this office. The main sources for my investigation are archival documents: synodal protocols, the official correspondence between the bishop and the Főkonzisztórium (the leading organization of the church) and personal letters. Most of these documents have neither been digitalized, nor researched. The goal of my dissertation is to gather and systematize previously unresearched data about the examined period of the Reformed Church in Transylvania. The modern translation of the Latin autobiography makes the document more accessible for the general public, as well as the interested historians. The investigation of the bishopric can be a useful starting point for future research both concerning the meaning of the bishop's office in the 18th century and in a monographic synthesis about the life of György Verestói.