Siculicidium

A monument raised in remembrance of the victims of Siculicidium

The Massacre at Madéfalva (Siculicidium in Latin, which means "murder of Székelys") was a mass murder committed against Székelys by the Habsburg army in 1764, under Maria Theresa.

History

In 1763, the Court of Vienna entrusted general Adolf Buccow to set up two Székely and two Romanian regiments to patrol the borders. However, the Székelys were unwilling to give up their hundred-year tradition of soldiering and their privileges and thus, they resisted the forced military draft and they organized a revolt against it. Maria Theresa appointed a new general, namely Josef Siskovics, who commanded his soldiers to attack Madéfalva (present-day Siculeni), where the Székely leaders were supposed to meet in a council. It was under the darkness of the snowy night of January 7, 1764 that the Habsburg mercenaries sneaked in the village and massacred about 400 unsuspecting people, including women and children.

Consequences

The following days, the Székely leaders were captured and impeached, while thousands of terrified Székelys started to migrate to Moldavia, where they took refuge in the villages of the Csángómagyars who had been living there for centuries. In 1774, the Habsburg soldiers took control of an area of Moldavia that would eventually be named Bukovina and – after the intervention of Count Andreas Hadik – they pardoned the Székelys there and settled them down. Here the Székelys founded their settlements. The five villages of the Székelys of Bukovina were Istensegíts ("God help us!", now Ţibeni, 1776), Fogadjisten ("Accept God's will!", now Iacobeşti), Józseffalva (now Vornicenii Mari, 1785), Hadikfalva (now Dorneşti) and Andrásfalva (Măneuţi, 1786).

Commemorations

Original prosecution document with Roth Joseph signature

The mystical addition

The events remained present in Székely collective memory: in 1905, an obelisk was erected at Madéfalva, on the top a Turul-bird with wings spread. At the bottom of the stone-pyramid there is a plate with the word SICVLICIDIVM on it (oddly enough, adding up the values of the letters as Roman numerals, the result is exactly the year of the massacre).

Since the Székelys of Bukovina came into existence as a consequence of the events of January 7, 1764, they celebrate this day as the community's birthday.

See also

• History of the Székely people