Thousands of pilgrims are heading down to Sumuleu Ciuc (a neighbourhood in the city of Miercurea Ciuc, Harghita county, Transylvania), where the great pilgrimage of Catholic Pentecost will take place on Saturday, some of them traveling impressive distances to reach the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Pilgrims carry church flags with them and pray all the way.

A woman from Hungary set off on April 26 and walked almost 800 kilometers to Sumuleu Ciuc.

She was accompanied at first by several people, but some of them gave up and others decided to continue their journey by train, which is why she was left alone. The woman said that she was helped by the people from the localities she went through and she is grateful that she will reach her destination safely.

Four pilgrims also came from Austria on horseback, starting from Mariazell, an important place of pilgrimage in this country, from where the Via Mariae begins, the spiritual road that traces a cross on the map of Central Europe and ends with the great procession of Catholic Pentecost in Harghita.

Approximately 200 pilgrims on horseback set off for Miercurea-Ciuc and will arrive on Friday evening in the saddle between Sumuleul Mare and Sumuleul Mic. They were joined by Hungarian State Secretary for National Policy Potápi Árpád János.

This year, a special train, made available on this occasion by the Hungarian railways, will bring pilgrims from Hungary, the trainset traffic being stopped for the last two years, due to the pandemic.

The pilgrimage from Sumuleu Ciuc has in the center the statue of the Virgin Mary, located in the nearby Franciscan Cathedral, which is considered a miracle worker, the priests and the faithful believing that its greatest miracle is the very event that originates this pilgrimage.

According to the rector of the Franciscan Church of Sumuleu Ciuc, Father Guia Laurean Hugo, in 1567 the prince of Transylvania, Ioan Sigismund, tried to impose the Unitarian religion on the Roman Catholic believers in the Szekler towns of Ciuc, Gheorgheni and Trei Scaune. They fought back and managed to face the prince's much larger army, while the women and children prayed at the statue of the Virgin Mary, in the cathedral of Sumuleu Ciuc, to help them to defend their faith.

The Szeklers returned to Sumuleu, decorating their flags with birch branches, and, together with those in the church, prayed to the Lord and the Blessed Virgin in thanksgiving.

In memory of this historic event, every year on Pentecost Saturday, Catholics from all over the world come on pilgrimage to the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sumuleu Ciuc, wearing green twigs in their hands, and praying at the miracle-working statue.AGERPRES(RO - author: Gina Stefan, editor: Karina Olteanu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)