Magyar News, 1996. szeptember-1997. augusztus (7. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1997-04-01 / 8. szám
j—:--------if ir i r k r rr if irr if i o S r 'J PART ONE '•r ^_________ by Erika Papp Faber ______r Following its establishment as a Christian nation in the 10th and 11th centuries, Hungary gave the Church so many saints that it came to be known as “Pannónia Sacra” — “"Holy Pannónia” (the Roman name of the area which became the heart of Hungary). A saying spread in Western countries, to the effect that “If anyone wishes to see holiness, let him go to Hungary.” Especially was this true up to the 13th century. But the Mongolian invasion, as well as 400 years of Turkish assaults destroyed many records, impoverished the land and sapped the nation’s energies which had to be concentrated on survival. The cause of many holy men and women was thus never pursued to the point of canonization, and sometimes the records that remained were lost in the labyrinths of bureaucracy. (According to “The The date of 2 April 1995 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Bishop Vilmos Apor of Győr from bullets fired by a Russian soldier as he was trying to protect women and girls from being raped. Baron Vilmos Apor was bom into an historically prominent Hungarian family on 29 February 1892. He studied theology at the University of Innsbruck, was ordained in 1915, and appointed curate in the town of Gyula. Three years later he became parish priest there. Since World War I was in full swing, he was assigned to be the military chaplain on a hospital train. He became particularly concerned with Hungary’s social problems and always helped those most in need, even giving away his own winter coat and his second pair of shoes. World War II had already begun when, after 25 years as pastor in Gyula, Vilmos Apor was appointed Bishop of Gyor, a city in western Hungary. He planned farreaching reforms, including building homes for workers, but the war prevented most of them from being carried out. When the Germans occupied Hungary in the spring of 1944, Bishop Apor vigorously opposed the anti-Jewish decrees, and in a Pentecost homily, branded as pagans and public sinners all who agreed to or participated in torture of others, “be they blacks or Jews”. He hid those Jewish people who fled to him in his own quar-Book of Saints”- published by the Benedictines of Ramsgate, England in 1967, the canonization of over 300 Hungarian men and women was in process throughout the past 1,100 years.) Yet more than 100 Hungarian-born or Hungarian-related saints have been recognized by the Church. Today, the cause of several Hungarian candidates for sainthood is pending in Rome once again. In our series we will have some of the better known canonized or beatified saints of Hungary. (Beatification is the step before canonization, and limits veneration of a saint to certain places or communities; canonization commands veneration of the saint everywhere.) ters and in various episcopal properties, including the cathedral loft. The German and Russian troops clashed at Gyor during Holy Week 1945. When Russian soldiers appeared at the Bishop’s bomb shelter, they found the Bishop standing guard at the entrance. The soldiers were drunk and demanded young women “to peel potatoes and do some housework”. The Bishop answered with a definite “no”, but agreed to send a group of older men and women who might volunteer to help. The soldiers insisted on young women. The Russian officer in charge sent soldiers to search for young women, while forcing the Bishop at gunpoint to go down into the bomb shelter. The Bishop had barely taken a few steps down, when desperate screams were heard: “Uncle Vilmos! Help!”. The soldiers had found the women hidden in the apple cellar and were pulling them out. Bishop Apor immediately turned around and raced up the steps. With upheld hands and an angry “Get out of here!”, he demanded that the abductors leave. Then one of the soldiers began to fire. Bishop Apor was hit by three bullets. One made a hole in the cuffs of his cassock and shirt. The second grazed his forehead, but did not touch any bones. However, blood from that wound flowed down his face and onto his cassock, and turned the floor tiles red. The third butiét which eventually proved fatal, entered his Bishop Vilmos Apor of Gyor stomach. Seeing what they had done, the soldiers let their victims go and ran out of the building. A group of volunteers carried the gravely wounded Bishop on a stretcher through the dark, deserted streets to the hospital for an emergency operation. The surgeon testified that such operations are extremely painful, since no sedative can reach the mutilated parts, yet Bishop Apor uttered not one word of complaint. Instead, he kept praying for his assassins. Next morning, his first question to a visitor was whether anything had happened to the women and girls. When reassured that all was well, he said, “I thank God that he has accepted my sacrifice!”. He was given the last rites on Easter Sunday and died in the early hours of the following morning, offering up his sufferings for his beloved country and his assassins. He was “temporarily” interred in the ciypt of the Carmelite church. Due to the communist regime’s anti-religious stance, only in June 1986 could his body be transferred to the cathedral and placed in the red marble sarcophagus carved for him decades earlier. The 50th anniversary of Bishop Apor’s martyrdom was widely observed at Gyor, Gyula, Segesvár (where Bishop Apor was bom) as well as in Budapest. Bishop Lajos Papai of Gyor initiated a “Bishop Apor Year.” Three Sundays in March were declared days of pilgrimage to his tomb. On the anniversary of his death (2 April) the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, was the principal celebrant at a Mass in Budapest. And the following day the Nuncio’s secretary spoke on the spirituality of Bishop Apor. The cause of the Hungarian Bishop Apor’s beatification is under way. The cause of beatification is on its way Page 6
