Kalvin Janos, born 500 years ago

by OLGS, guest blogger:

In the United States, the big anniversary this year is the birth of Abraham Lincoln, 200 years ago in 1809. Elsewhere, and some places in the U.S., people are celebrating the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth. In Debrecen, known for many centuries as "The Calvinist Rome," this year marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of "Kalvin Janos," or John Calvin.

There is a big exhibit on Calvin's life and writing at the Reform (Calvinist) seminary, located just off Calvin Square. It is amazing to think about the speed with which ideas traveled across Europe during the Protestant Reformation, thanks to the printing press and to travelers carrying texts and letters. By 1538, the reform seminary was established in Debrecen, just two years after Calvin published his main critique of the established church. I only had time yesterday to glance at the exhibit and resolve to return to the Reform Seminary Library to study it in more depth, this time with my Hungarian-English dictionary in hand so I can better translate the labels.