Hungarian Heritage Review, 1990 (19. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1990-08-01 / 8. szám
United States in order to provide a home for others of the Order who might need a place to reside. This small group settled near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in a monastery that had been established by Dutch monks, Spring Bank. It was to this place that more seminarians came as they fled Hungary. After some years of struggling to establish a high school in this country similar to the ones which had existed back in Hungary, a group of highly trained teachers and other professionals found themselves in Irving, Texas. And just at this time the Bishop of the Diocese of Dallas-Forth Worth was thinking of setting up a Catholic institution of higher learning. This was to be called the University of Dallas. The University was inaugurated in the fall of 1956, with considerable assistance from the Hungarian Cistercians. EFFECTS OF 1956 It was, of course, during 1956 that the latest Revolutionin Hungarian history took place. Among others who escaped the carnage were additional young priests of the Cistercian Order who found their way to Irving. Knowing that there would probably be additional refugees coming, the superior, Abbot Anselm Nagy authorized the setting up of the Cistercian Preparatory School. This, as we have indicated, opened its doors in 1962. THE HEADMASTER MARTON The present Headmaster of the Cistercian Preparatory School. Fr. Bernard Marton, was born in Hungary in 1941. He and some of his family, who had fled Budapest during the War, returned to their home after the collapse of the Nazis. They found that there was only destruction; all their property had been looted. The rest of the family, however, had survived. The lad Bernard was in the Cistercian Preparatory School in Budapest and remained there until all religious schools were closed by the government. When he was a sophomore, the Revolution broke out, and he fled the country with the United States as his ultimate goal. And he arrived in Dallas in 1958. Fr. Marion’s ties with the Cistercian community in Dallas were generally close—he went to the University of Dallas—and he became a member of the Order in 1961. In 1968, after he had pursued and completed his advanced studies in Rome—obtaining a Doctorate in 1968—he joined the Cistercian Preparatory School as a teacher of French and religions. His rise through the academic ranks was steady, and in 1981 he was appointed Headmaster of the School. Fr. Marton is not a stranger to controversy. Because he retained close ties with his native land, visiting Hungary regularly from 1968 on, and working towards cooperation and understanding even when, in his own words, “...it was not yet in fashion", Fr. Marton was subject to attack from various Hungarian sources. Subsequent events have, of course, established the correctness of Fr. Marion’s thought and action; his own modesty is such that he makes little of this uncomfortable aspect of his career. His great pride is in the accomplishment of the Cistercian Preparatory School, carrying on the traditions of the schools in Hungary. Cistercian Middle School Building AUGUST 1990 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 19
