Below is an article issued by TARS, the news agency of Slovakia, on an historic document recently found by a priest doing his dissertation research. An interview with this priest also appeared as the front cover story in the June issue of the Eastern Catholic Life, diocesan newspaper of the Eparchy of Passaic.
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GREEK CATHOLIC PRIEST, JURAJ GRADOS, DISCOVERED A RARE DOCUMENT RELATING TO THE UNION OF UZHOROD DATED 24 APRIL 1646
Published by TASR 6 May 2016 in Presovsky Kororzar.SK
Translated by Rev. Mr. Vince Obsitnik
PRESOV. Until now , experts believed that the act of the Union of Uzhorod was not documented and, therefore, no record existed of its consummation. This new discovery changes all this.
To date, only a document dated 15 January 1652 addressed the actual Union. The Church considers this a rare discovery and was announced today by Lubomir Petrik, the spokesman for the Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Presov.
"In this auspicious Charter is found text in Latin followed by the signatures of probably 63 priests. Since Grados found the rare document on the 4th of May it is still under investigation. Further information about the historical discovery of this rare document will be published in the professional literature." stated Petrik.
Preparing a Publication
The priest who found the Charter has been publishing a series on the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia. The series began in 2012 and will be completed in 2018 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Presov. At the same time, the series will serve as his doctoral dissertation.
"The discovery is all the more valuable since, just a few days ago, we commemorated the 370th anniversary of the Union of Uzhorod", said the spokesman.
The Union of Uzhorod was a formal act of the restoration of full ecclesial communion of the Church of the Byzantine rite in the Mukachevo eparchy with the Catholic Church. At that time , today's Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia was also a part of the Mukachevo eparchy.
According to historians, the Union took place on 24 April 1646 in the Drugeth Castle in Uzhorod. Present were 63 Greek Catholic priests and the Roman Catholic bishop of Eger, George Jakusic.
