“The Timing of the Speeches is Determined by the Season, the Locals and the Surroundings!”: A Popular Mission Agenda in the 20th Century

Popular mission was an important pastoral instrument in the 20th century, aimed at reviving and deepening religious life. This paper explores the practice of popular missions in Transylvania in the first half of the 20th century, after the foundation of the Transylvanian Priestly Missionary Association with the approval of Bishop Gusztáv Károly Mailáth (1901). It focuses on the Handbook for Popular Missions by Balázs Lajos and Sándor Gálffy, which details the indispensable elements: the sermons and teaching of various groups, the Holy Mass, the Stations of the Cross and the Holy Rosary, ringing the penitential bell, morning and evening prayer, evening and festive devotions, silence, fasting, confession, and the organisation of religious associations.