Blessed Virgin Mary - Exhibition in the Cathedral

Queen of Heaven, great reinventor of this world, in my final supplication, I entrust your protection to the Church along with the bishops, the priests; to the country and its people and its lords; bidding them last farewell, I offer my soul into your hands. (The legend of Saint Stephen) Since a thousand hundred years ago when King Saint Stephen put the country under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Crown, the Hungarian people have lived under the cloak of the Patrona Hungariae in the Pannonian Basin, the land of their ancestors. Christian Hungarians identify the figure of the Blessed Lady with the Virgin Mary. The Hungarian nation has been praying for the intervention of its protector, the Blessed Lady, for over a thousand years. The jubilee year of the Virgin Mary (14 September 2014 - 15 September 2015) was announced by Right Reverend György Jakubinyi, archbishop of Transylvania, and the Franciscan Monastery of Şumuleu Ciuc on the occasion of the 500-year anniversary of the Statue of the Virgin Mary. The present series of travelling exhibitions, launched by the Research Institute for National Strategy in Budapest, aims to present contemporary artistic interpretations of the complex and multifaceted figure of the Blessed Lady. Fifty-five outstanding Hungarian artists from the Pannonian Basin and its diasporas try to shed light on the distinguished relationship between the Blessed Lady (Virgin Mary) and the Hungarians. By organising an exhibition for the scattered Hungarian communities of the world, the Research Institute for National Strategy aims to introduce Christianity and the national values that serve as a guarantee for the nation's survival; redefining, canonizing and embedding the figure of the Blessed Lady into the everyday life of communities. Our objective is to facilitate the cross-border reunification of the nation by raising awareness to the cult of the Virgin Mary as a symbol of Hungarian unity; be it in the mother country, abroad, in enclaves or in diasporas around the world. Jenő Szász, President of the Research Institute for National Strategy