Transylvania is one of those small areas of Central Europe, which clearly displays through its very continuity of existence the ageless struggle between European West and European East.
The country has suffered some wounds as well as gaining great benefits from Central Asiatic influences. Transylvania for many hundreds of years was part of Hungary. Then it became independent, ruled by Hungarian princes who nevertheless considered themselves Transylvanian rather than Hungarian. After World War I, the country was joined to Romania, then parts of it were returned to Hungary; and when World War II ended, the country found itself once more under Romanian rule.
Today its population is more than half Romanian; the next largest group is Hungarian, while the third determining cultural and folk element is German-Saxon; it is a place where East and West really meet. The Germans began to settle there in the twelfth century and some, mostly Lutherans, remain there now.
The statue of Our Lady of Csiksomlyo is clearly a peasant Madonna. Her round face shows the characteristics of the Southeast European racial mixture. Like the Madonna and her shrines in this and other territories of Eastern Europe, she was primarily the refuge of Christians in their tremendous adversities.
The Sekler folk, who have the most colorful folklore in every respect--literature, dress and forms of religiosity--in order to show their gratitude for the miracles and help, built her a sumptuous Gothic cathedral, which was later rebuilt in Baroque style. But church and shrine have distinct Byzantine characteristics as well. From their establishment in the fifteenth century, the shrine and church were open to all nations.
Documents prove that the statue was considered a worker of miracles as far back as the middle of the sixteenth century.
The monastery and the shrine were attacked many times. A Tartar officer attempted to pierce the statue with his lance. Surrounding buildings burned down six times, but the statue remained untouched. The invading Tartars once were driven back by a small force of women dressed in soldier uniforms. The people, harassed by civil and foreign wars, despoiled by the invaders and by their own lords, very often felt themselves entirely helpless and ran for aid to the shrines of Mary, and if at all possible, first to the sanctuary of Csiksomlyo-Sumuleu.
Credits : Catholic Culture
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