Zsuzsanna Lorántffy

Who was Zsuzsanna Lorántffy?

Zsuzsanna Lorántffy, anglicized as Susanna Lorantffy was the wife of György Rákóczi I, Prince of Transylvania. A passionate Calvinist, she assisted her husband in his successful struggle to introduce Protestant reforms in the Transylvanian church.

Under her influence, John Amos Comenius, a promininent Calvinist teacher, took up residence in Sárospatak.

Her older son, George II Rákóczi, became Prince of Transylvania. Her younger son, Sigismund Rákóczi, was married to Henriette Marie of the Palatinate, daughter of Elizabeth of Bohemia.

She founded or sponsored several educational establishments, notably the Reformed College at Sárospatak.

Her Protestant religious beliefs compelled her to shun the pampered life of an aristocrat and instead to express her religion through action especially through development of girls' education. While living in Nagyvárad she ensured that girls were taught not only the skills needed to run a home and bring up a family, but also to read, write, and do arithmetic. They were to be versed in the Bible.

She sponsored the Várad Bible, a completely new translation.