The Academy of Theology in Sárospatak and Pápa had been closed under pressure coming from the state in the Rákosi era. Some students who did not want to accept the events sneaked back to Sárospatak by boats. Some of them paid a high price for their choices. The „Exodus of Sárospatak” is only one among the stories telling about how Protestant lives were broken into two in the 20th century. What was supposed to happen to pastors, their families, church schools, their teachers, active members of congregations in the party state? What happened when protestant schools could restart after the change of the regime and churches became free from the state again?

GRAMMAR AND GRACE – 500 years of Reformation, a large-scale exhibition by the Hungarian National Museum takes its visitors to a connecting exhibition of short films and photos to learn about fateful events of the 20th century and to understand their effects on the Protestant churches and their followers.

These short films were shot in the last couple of years. While watching them we can follow and understand the fates of some famous institutions, families and individuals from not only Hungary but the whole Carpathian Basin.

The Documentary Workshop of the Ráday Collection has been shooting documentaries about significant characters and moments of the Reformed Church in Hungary in the 20th and 21st centuries since 2014. (Contributors: Annamária Németh cameraman; Anna Vágó editor; István Victor pastor; Gyula Hosszú teacher) The interviews about paths of life and documentaries were made by order from Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Ráday Collection of the Reformed Church Diocese of Dunamellék and János Calvin Academy of Teology in cooperation with the Reformed Church Diocese of Transylvania and Association of Erdélyi-Múzeum.

A series of events is connected to the exhibition titled ReFilm – Week of Protestant Documentaries where visitors can meet the characters and makers of the short films.

Sponsors: Reformation 500 Committee, National Cultural Fund