www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Trip to Eastern Europe

I will be making visit to eastern europe in June and am hoping that some of the members here might have information to share that would be of help to me on my trip, specifically:

Location and Sunday liturgy schedules of any Greek Catholic churches in Budapest;

Information of weekday services in Bardejov/Mal'cov;

Bookstores in Presov/Kosice/Bratislava/Prague where I might find the Irmologion of Papp & Petrasevic, and other music collections that are hard to find in the US.

Thanks,

Greek Catholic bookstores in Pre?ov:

Petra, Hlavn� 3, Pre?ov
http://home.nextra.sk/petragrk/

Byzant, also on Hlavn� ulica

They are right by St. John the Baptist GC cathedral. When I have been there several times over the past few years, I didn't ever see any books of chant. Probably your best bet is to photocopy the Papp/Petrasevic Irmologion - I did.
I've only been in one used bookstore in the city, and they didn't have that type of books. It's near St. Nicholas RC church farther north on Hlavn�.

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI BOHU!

Hi DJS

When in PRESOV, standing facing St.John's Cathedral, BYZANT will be on your right just before you come to the Seminary and the Bishop's residence. They do have some good things there. However, the BYZANT in Kosice is much larger with more of a variety. Unfortunately, I don't remember where the BYZANT is in Kosice.

If you can, visit the ikon museum in BARDEJOV. There is a company in Bardejov that specializes in tours of the wooden churches, both Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic. Try to get in touch with them and see if you can arrange something.

I'll look at home and see if I have their address.

mark

OPPPSSS!!!!

When facing the Cathedral, BYZANT is on your LEFT!

sorry.....

mark

Thanks Lemko Rusyn and Medved.
Nice to hear about arranged tours around Bardejov.

don't just see the wooden church in the Skansen in Bardejov but there are many others in the area between Svidnik and Bardejov, one of the most impressive is the wooden church in Semetkovce. Another intresting one is in Krajne Cerno, when they built the iconostas, they only put in one deacons door. In Slovakia, one can tell if the church is Greek Catholic or Orthodox by just looking at the Cross, if the third bar of the cross is streight than it is Greek Catholic while if it is slanted it is Orthodox.

I know it's not quite the same, but the 1904 Stauropegion Irmologion in Church Slavonic can be obtained from the Basilian Press in Toronto.

Thanks again to all.
We're off.

May the Lord guard your going out and your coming in. Enjoy!

Just a little note on some aspects of the trip:

We found a lovely parish on "Main Street" in Buda, simply by telling our concierge that we wanted to go to services at a Greek Catholic church. We took the tram alog the Danube to the final stop, they walked a few blocks, following the sign for the Greek Catholic Temple that was posted with other information in the park at the end of the line. The temple is a beautiful Baroque chapel (St. Florian). The chanting was grand, the music all ours, and no one seemed to mind my mangled Hungarian.

We then went straight to Bardejov and to my grandparents village of Mal'cov. At the Wednesday evening liturgy, the church was full, including ten altar boys and group of young girls who just finished their final exams. The chanting was beyond grand, the music all ours, and no one seemed to mind my mangled Slovak. Religious life seems so fully integrated with personal and community life in the village. How wonderful it must be to simply walk down the lane for liturgy before dinner each night. I think that I discovered there (by contrast) the most terrible aspect of modern church architecture: the parking lot!

The next Sunday we were in Bratislava and went to a lovely church by the St. Andrew cemetery for the Old Slavonic Liturgy. A choir led the singing. They mostly did nice arrangments of prostopinije, so it was easy to join in.

Finally we were also able to get to a Thursday evening liturgy in Old Slavonic in Prague in a stunning Baroque chapel in the Klimentarium.

I had read some posts here that made me fearful of talking liturgies, guitars, etc. But every liturgy that we attended was chanted with great devotion and enthusiasm, and with completely familiar prostopinije. It was great to travel so far and feel so much at home.

Interestingly, I heard many of the different settings that are found in Sokol's Blue Book used. At one liturgy, the Cherubic hymn was sung to the tune of Marian hymn "All the faithful come before You". I think that in the US we use probably use a very limited repetoire, but would love to find out that I am wrong about this.

P.S. to Inawe, thanks for your prayer, we had a glorious trip.

[ 06-26-2002: Message edited by: djs ]