The Reformed Church of Jokka

The Reformed parish of Jóka was founded in 1784, and its first civil registers date from this time. It is true that a Reformed congregation existed in the village as early as 1562, and it operated continuously from 1594 to 1672, i.e. until its prohibition. The Draskovits visitation of 1634 reveals that at the beginning of the 17th century, only one of the 300 inhabitants of the village declared himself Catholic. The famous reformer Demeter Sibolti was also active in Jóka between 1574 and 1576. Albert Szenczi Molnár, the translator of the Psalms of David and the creator of Hungarian grammar, was also a frequent guest of the village in the 1610s, to be precise in August and September 1613. He visited here when Lukács Szenczi Szíjgyártó and Péter Csene Szenczi were the village pastors. A square in Jóka bears Albert Molnár's name today, and a plaque on the Reformed church announces his importance and his connections to Jóka. The first independent church of the Reformed Church was built in 1798-1800. It was later demolished, and the new church was built in 1930 under the pastorship of Károly Varga. Among the pastors of the Reformed Church, Károly Csontos, Gyula Kiss, László Mikula and Zoltán Borza also deserve mention.