Oldal 447 [447]
Taught by teachers of the bishopric seminaries who carried the new attitudes,
the lower priesthood showed a completely novel, far more sceptical relation to
ideas about the incessant working of demonic powers in this world than their
predecessors had done who willingly wielded the arsenal of benedictions and ex¬
orcisms against such evil doings. The use of ‘special’ and ‘alternative’ scramen¬
tals was gradually withdrawn from the practise first of lay priests and then of mo¬
nastic orders. Naturally, this withdrawal was not full-ranging or final. Ethno¬
graphic field work of the 20°-21" century still occasionally reports clerical
practice which serves the demands of the believers by offering benedictions and
even creating new texts for blessings (particularly along the edges of the Hungar¬
ian speaking area). In the background to these phenomena we may assume the
influence (mostly an invigorating reverse influence) of orthodoxy with its unbro¬
ken preservation of the clerical activity of blessings and curses.
The types of benedictions contained in the reader (according to orientation)
are the following:
I. Blessings and exorcisms of the elements
1. Water
a) general
) solemn blessing of the water (Epiphany)
) baptismal water
) water of St. Ignatius
e) water of St. Francis of Xavier
f) water of St. Didäk
g) on St. Agatha’s day against fire
h) blessing agains bewitchment
i) blessing the water to avert a curse of muteness
j) blessing to avert floods
2. Fire
a) blessing the fire on Good Saturday
b) fire to burn objects that carry evil charms
c) exorcism against fire
3. Air
a) a procession to induce rain
b) procession for a cloudless sky
averting storms with prayers
blessing and exorcising storms
against impending storm, thunder, lightening, hail or stormy wind
b
c
d
Ye e e
c
d
e
f) blessing the air on Sundays and holidays during summer
446