A short history of Csango people

In the 18th century a new wave of people moved from Transylvania to Moldavia, settling predominantly along the Siret river. Some went to the villages previously with Catholic peoples, but many founded new settlements. The populations of all villages in Moldavia were much depleted through the periods of invasions, and this applied to the former Catholic villages along the Siret. The Moldavians called these people Ungareni, because they came from Transylvania which was part of Hungary (this practice of using the term Ungareni for Transylvanian is common throughout many aspects, e.g. costume and dances). Observations from the time record that they were bilingual in Hungarian and Romanian, wore Romanian costumes, and were Catholic.

The majority of the Csango concentrated in the region of Roman and Bacau speak Romanian in a specific Transylvanian dialect, therefore, learnt their Romanian in Transylvania and not in Moldavia. After less than ten years after arriving in Moldavia the Csango are reported to be bilingual in Romanian and Hungarian suggesting that they arrived with both languages. Their Hungarian is spoken with incorrect pronunciation which is likely to be due to using the Romanian dialect phonetics when speaking Hungarian.

In the late 19th century research noticing the non-Magyar elements in these Csango led to a theory of a Cuman origin although there was no proof. This idea still persists today in articles about the Csango. There have been many other theories for the origins of the Csango - Cabars, Pecheneg, ancient Turkish, Hun, Atelkuz Magyar, etc.

Over a hundred years of research has not found any positive evidence for the Csango to be related to other populations from Europe to Asia, but all this research ignored the possibility of a Romanian origin, probably due the missed evidence of the non-Moldavian Romanian dialect and political wishes.

In Transylvania, after the Unio trium in 1438, the Romanian's civil, political and properties were taken away. Being Catholic was legally considered to be Magyar independent of ethnic origin and added to this the lack of Orthodox priests and poverty led to the conversion of Romanians to the wealthy and organised Szekler religions. Thus the minority of Romanians in the Szekler region of south east Transylvania were subjected to a long process of "Szekleriztion". Between 1733 to 1760 there were Romanians in 372 villages, a century latter the Romanians had gone from 119 villages and almost from a further a 123 villages. This has now resulted in virtually no Romanians in some parts of this region, all that remain are derelict orthodox churches, Magyarised names and Csango.

The evidence leads one to conclude that the Csango on the Siret valley are mainly "Szeklerized" Romanians from south east Transylvania. The oppression and exploitation of peasants by the noble estate owners plus the enforced recruitment into the Austrian army led to the flight of many of thousands across the Carpathians to Wallachia and Moldavia. The exodus was so large that the Austrian authorities tried to use military measures to stem the movement.

From 1825 Hungarian priests worked in the Csango villages and one can see the "Magyarisation" of the family names and in some places the village names. Attempts to change the language in the church led to rival factions, arguments, complaints about the "blind national fanaticism" of the missionaries, and nearly to their expulsion.

1607 - From the documents of the Parliament in Marosvásárhely: "In the time past very many poor people ran to Moldavia because of the lots of needs and miseries of the deprived country."

1612 - The Parliament in Szeben orders the "watching of the roads and paths going to Moldavia", and also that "if the poor want to leave Transylvania with their wife and cattle, they must
not be allowed, but impeded and given back to their landlord.

1634 – 1653 - Voivode Vasile Lupu asks Rome for a spiritual leader for 12,000 Moldavian Catholic believers.

1641 - Apostolic Vicar Peter Diodat gives a detailed account of the settlements of the Moldavian Catholic and the number of their inhabitants.

1646 - Bandinus records 1,201 Catholic, 300 had Romanian names. Of the 33 localities mentioned only 11 still exist today.

1671 - Del Monte (Italian missionary) records that the Moldavian Catholics native language was Romanian.

Villages write a letter of complaint to the Saint Congregation about the missionaries' abuses of power, and they say if the injury is not redressed they will put themselves under the orthodox bishop's authority.

1680 - Vito Piluzio reports to Rome that the inhabitants of some Catholic settlements were all gone. For example Sabaoani was uninhabited from 1687 to 1744.

1780 - Petru Zold uses the term Csano in a letter, the term latter adopted by Hungarian scholars, comments on them as wearing Romanian costume, and mostly being bilingual in Romanian and badly spoken Hungarian.

1787-8 - Concern raised regarding the lack of Hungarian speaking Catholic missionaries in Moldavia. Those in Moldavia were Italians, and could learn Romanian more easily. The Pope was not concerned, however two Hungarian missionaries were sent to Moldavia.

1796 - Gospel in Romanian published at Kalocsa. A copy was found in Neamt county in 1962. Presumably for Romanian Catholics.

1825 - Six Hungarian priests placed in Moldavia every year. But, by 1859 the payments were made to the "San Antonio" college in Rome and the gradual withdrawal of the Hungarians.

1837 - Gego Elek sent to study the Csango by the Magay Society of Sciences found so many non-Maygar elements in language, costume, appearance, customs and way of lift that he concluded that they of Cuman origin without considering a Romanian origin.

1844 - Jernei Janos noted that the Hungarian language had disappeared, or was close to, in the Csango villages.

1902 - Gustav Weigland adopted the Cuman hypothesis on the basis of their sibilant pronuciation which he assumed without proof to be of Cuman origin.

1914 - Karacsonyi Janos theorised that the Csango were descendents of the Cabars, without any linguistic or ethnographic connections.

1946 - They are given minority status in Romania and more than one hundred Hungarian schools are founded in Moldavia. However, they refuse to attend these schools and all are closed execpt the school in Lespezi exists until 1959.