7 https://doi.org/10.2478/se-2020-0001 Štúdie
Doc. Mgr. Katarína Slobodová Nováková, PhD., Katedra etnológie a mimoeurópskych
štúdií, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave, Nám. J. Herdu 2,
917 01 Trnava; e-mail: katarina.novakova@ucm.sk
Mgr. Pavol Krajčovič, Katedra etnológie a mimoeurópskych štúdií, Filozofická fakulta,
Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave, Nám. J. Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava; e-mail:
2757091@student.ucm.sk
Saint Vincent is one of the saints the worshipping of which occupies an important place
both in the official church cult and in folk religiousness. He is currently regarded as
the patron of wine growers, wine producers and woodcutters. Folk respect was parti-
cularly manifested in Saint Vincent’s native Spain and France, and this cult gradually
expanded to Germany and Austria in the 14
th
century. Thanks to migration, it spread
from these regions to southern Austria and Slovakia with relatively successful establish-
ment. The study analyses the materials from different periods of the 19
th
and 20
th
cen-
turies, obtained by field and archive research on the religiousness of Alpine woodcutters,
as well as older historical materials and contemporary records of this cult. By means
of a comparative analysis of the obtained data, the study attempts to explore the mo-
vements by which the cult of Saint Vincent could have spread to Lower Austria and
Western Slovakia. It also points out the importance of interdisciplinary research in in-
dicating the origin of Alpine woodcutters, designated by the exoethnonym Huncokars
in Slovakia. The previous research and publications about this group were based on
relatively poor and limited sources of information, many of which were not always
correctly interpreted. The study has the ambition to add and correct the information
on the origin of Alpine woodcutters in the light of the newest research and findings.
The research of the cult of Saint Vincent is one of the paths that indicate the origin of
the group as well as the possible ways of the dissemination of the cult thanks to the mi-
gration of its supporters. Through the example of this cult, we also aim to highlight
cultural transfers as a result of ethnic movements in Central Europe.
Kľúčové slová: sv. Vincent, kult svätcov, sviatkovanie, migrácia, alpskí drevorubači,
huncokari, kultúrny prenos
Key words: Saint Vincent, the cult of saints, feasts, migration, Alpine woodcutters,
Huncokars, cultural transfer
1 68 • 2020 ŠTÚDIE
Rozšírenie kultu sv. Vincenta na Slovensku a v Rakúsku
ako výsledok migrácií alpských drevorubačov v priebehu
18. storočia
The Dissemination of the Cult of Saint Vincent in Slovakia and Austria
as a Result of 18
th
Century Migration of Alpine Woodcutters
KATARÍNA SLOBODOVÁ NOVÁKOVÁ
PAVOL KRAJČOVIČ
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/se-2020-0001 © Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie SAV
© 2020, Katarína Slobodová Nováková, Pavol Krajčovič. This is an open access article licensed under
the Creative Commons