Calvin Synod Herald, 1984 (84. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1984-02-01 / 1. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 5 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA The heroic pastor had his horse killed beneath him. Having been wounded twice in the legs by a spear and having had his helmet shivered, the great shepherd now lay slain among his own flock. With the last spark of life within him, he struggled to a large pear tree. There he lay with his back to the trunk of a tree, his eyes directed to heaven, and hands folded in prayer. His enemies encircled him with swords. “You can kill the body, but you cannot kill the soul,” whispered the brave pastor his last words to his enemies who breathed hate and revenge against him. The continous loss of blood made his body so weak that he was unable to speak. He continued to look heavenward, and murmured prayers without words. Inside the circle stood a man of hard and crafty features, wearing a coat of buff, shining breast plate, and red sash: Vockingen, the captain of the Unterwaldens. With him was a popish priest from the court of the Bishop of Constance. “Do you want me to hear your dying confession?” querried the priest with a visible sign of satisfaction. Zwingli unable to speak, shook his head. “Do you want to take the last sacrament?” Zwingli shook his head again more violently. One of the cavalry soldiers whispered ironically to another next to him: “How would he, who fought against it; when our own Pope, Leo X, willingly died without the last sacrament?” “Then pray in your heart to Holy Mary and call upon the saints!” cried the priest with anger. Zwingli shook his head yet more violently, protesting even with the last shaking of his head against superstition and idolatry. Thus he preached the true Gospel that he had proclaimed all his life. Even now when his lips could utter no more words he protested that no other could be an intermediary between God and man, but our Lord Jesus Christ! There lay under the leafless branches of the pear tree inside the ring of his enemies the real Protestant, protesting against falseness and darkness, and protesting for Christ and Truth with the last drop of his blood. “Then die, you damned heretic!” cried Captain Vockingen with rage. He drew is sword and delivered a deadly stroke upon the neck of the dying reformer. There lay now the dead body of the good shepherd in the midst of his living enemies, and among the hundreds of slain bodies of his flock scattered all over the battlefield, which included the bodies of his brother-in-law, stepson, and son-in-law, and almost all principal leaders of the army, the canton and the new church. Above the stars rose one after the other and soon the mellow lights of hundreds of the stars in the sky like so many candlelights shone over the great roster of the slain martyr bodies lying on the rolling grounds of the battlefield of Kappel like so many stepping stones on the road of marching Truth. "Take this dead body of this damned arch-heretic!” exclaimed the captain of the Unterwaldens, giving the final order to his executioners. “Fulfill the double punishment of a traitor and a heretic on his body!” Then his corpse was quartered by the hangman, as first punishment. Then its sections were mixed with dung and burnt in the flames of a stake, and the ashes, that remained, were dispersed into the wind, as second punishment. As the four winds carried the ashes of the great reformed and martyr of the Truth over the battlefield of Kappel towards all directions of the world, his foes thought they had killed him and his cause forever. In reality it was only the body they had destroyed with elaborate cruelty; the soul they could not kill. The soul lives on and Truth marches on! DR. FRANCIS ÚJLAKI 1890—1984 Nestor of the Hungarian Protestant Clergy in America — died The painful news throughout all America, where Hungarians and their descendants live and even in Hungary, was received with the deepest sorrow: Francis Újlaki died in Louisville, Kentucky on January 31,1984, just two weeks prior to his 94th birthday. The greatest tree had fallen in the forest of all Hungarians in America. His life was an immeasurable blessing to all Hungarians in the U.S. and his memory will be forever cherished. Francis Újlaki was born in Ungvar, Hungary on February 13, 1890. He finished all his schooling in one of the oldest Academies of Europe, in Sárospatak, Hungary. One of the first established in Hungary right after Reformation. There he was ordained as a minister of the Reformed Church of Hungary. At the request of the Hungarian Reformed Churches in U.S.A. he was sent to America by the mother church to serve among our people here, that was so badly needed. He came to Cleveland, Ohio in 1913 and began his service here at the First Hungarian Reformed Church as assistant pastor to Dr. Alexander Toth, in this first and oldest church established here in America. After that he served as pastor in three congregations in the State of Ohio: in Fairport—Harbor, Ashtabula, Conneaut church from 1915 till 1922; in Lorain from 1922 till 1928; in Toledo from 1929 till 1944. In the year of 1944 he was elected to be full time president of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America with its headquarters in Washington D.C. He served as national president in Washington through five 4 year terms in the nation’s capitol with tremendous distinction. After his retirement he moved to Pompano Beach, Florida where he lived till the end of his life. He never stopped preaching in Florida churches and at the great occasions in most of Hungarian Reformed churches all over the Nation. For his distinguished service he was honored by Lancaster Seminary of the United Church of Christ in Lancaster Pennsylvania by confering on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. One of his greatest humanitarian accomplishments was to take a planeload of penicillin to Hungary at the end of the war, which was so badly needed, as a gift of our national Hungarian Reformed Federation and our churches. The crown of his life was the national celebration organized for him by the Reformed Federation, the national ministerial Association and our churches in Toledo, Ohio on May 18, 1965 honoring him at his fiftieth anniversary in the ministry. That celebration brought him even international honors overseas. The Kentucky State legislation also honored him by giving him the title of “Kentucky Colonel”. His wife, Julia Rúzsa, died in 1947 in Washington D.C. One of his daughters, Margaret (Mrs. Stephen Szabó) died in 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio. His second wife, the former Mrs. George Kovachy, died in 1981. He is survived by daughters: Lillian, Mrs. Paul Lowell in Pontiac, Michigan and Magdalene, Mrs. Art Bodnar in Louisville, Kentucky. By grandchildren: Lynda and Pam Lowell; Sharon and Kimberly Bodnar; Dr. Stephen F. Szabó (Washington D.C.) and Fred S. Szabó (Cleveland, Ohio), and 3 great-grandchildren. Also survived by members of the Kovachy family: Edward Kovachy, George Kovachy (Cleveland, Ohio) and Mrs. David Drummond (Chicago, 111.). Also by Mrs. Alex Fried (Cleveland, Ohio).
