Sándor Raffay’s political activity at the beginning of his bishopric career

Abstract

Sándor Raffay was invested to be the bishop of the Diocese Montana, the largest community of the Hungarian Lutheran Church on September 5, 1918. The new church leader started his service during a perilous period of 20th-century Hungarian history. The country was defeated in World War I. On October 31, 1918 the bourgeois democratic revolution won and Hungary became an independent people’s republic. More and more territories of the state were occupied by foreign troops. Then on March 21, 1919 there was a Bolshevik takeover of power. During these months Sándor Raffay tried everything he could to protect the rights and unity of his church. He combined these attempts with a strife for the preservation of the country’s territorial integrity. The course of history, however, doomed most of his efforts.