Church of the Nativity of Mary – Tišina (Csendlak)
The Church of the Nativity of Mary in Tišina (Csendlak) belongs to one of the oldest parishes in Prekmurje and was for centuries a place of pilgrimage. A late Gothic sanctuary was added to its medieval nave in the early 16th century, and the Renaissance tombstone of a Styrian lord preserves the memory of the Reformation era.
Scholars date the origins of the parish to the 12th century. Its church of Our Lady is first mentioned in 1347, under the name of the neighbouring hamlet of Mesynch; the village itself appears in charters in the same year. It received the Hungarian name Csendlak only during the place-name Magyarisation of the late 19th century, having earlier been called Tissina, and it belonged to Vas County until 1920. The church was originally dedicated to the Assumption, like the old churches of Grad (Felsőlendva) and Turnišče (Bántornya), and its present nave may partly survive from the 14th-century building.
After 1500 the church was enlarged: the spacious late Gothic sanctuary was built at this time with the support of the Széchy family, lords of the Murska Sobota estate. In the wars that followed the siege of Vienna in 1683 the church burned down, losing its roof, its old tower and its furnishings; it was restored in 1685 and 1698. At the visitation of 1756 the high altar was dedicated to Mary and the side altars to St Barbara and St Anthony of Padua; the high altar was rebuilt at that time by the patron, Péter Szapáry.
The church's most remarkable monument is the marble tombstone of the Styrian baron Karl von Herberstorff (1547–1606). Expelled from Radkersburg for his Lutheran faith, he died at the Nádasdy castle in neighbouring Petanjci (Szécsénykút) and was buried in the church in Tišina. On the Renaissance monument he lies in armour, wearing a plumed helmet, between his sword and dagger, above his coat of arms. From 1899 to 1913 the parish priest was the Slovene writer and theologian Franc Ivanoci (Ferenc Ivanóczy), who promoted congregational singing and religious teaching in Slovene; a memorial plaque to him was unveiled on the south side of the church in 1957.
Pilgrimage feast: the church's titular feast is the Nativity of Mary, 8 September; in 2019 the restoration of the façades with traditional lime plaster was completed on this very day.
Visiting: Tišina lies about 8 km west of Murska Sobota, on the main road towards Radenci. The church stands at the edge of the village centre, between the Mokoš brook and the road, in a churchyard shaded by old trees.
Sources: Wikipedia (Slovene) · Wikipedia – Csendlak (Tišina) · e-Documenta Pannonica – tombstone of Karl von Herberstorff · Wikipedia (German) – Tišina
Photo: Nxr-at / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Nxr-at / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town:
Tišina (Csendlak)
