‟In our truncated country every joy is truncated…” Sándor Raffay, Lutheran Bishop and the Collapse of Historical Hungary

Abstract

Sándor Raffay was the bishop of the Diocese Montana of the Hungarian Lutheran Church between 1918 and 1945. He started his service as a church leader during a perilous period of Hungarian history. The country was defeated in World War I and was stricken by deep economic and political crisis afterwards. What was even more tragic was that as a consequence of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, signed on June 4, 1920, Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory and more than half of its population. The Lutheran Church suffered similar losses. Raffay tried his best to reduce the losses. He tried to persuade the ethnic minorities in his diocese not to break away from Hungary. He asked the foreign protestant churches to interfere and help to reduce the punishments in-flicted on the country at the peace conference. His efforts, however, proved to be futile.