Folia Theologica 7. (1996)

József Török: History of the St. Paul order (A critical Study)

HISTORY OF THE ST. PAUL ORDER

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who started the noviciate in Poland could attend from the monastery the seminar of the diocese of Pécs.

The 700th anniversary of the foundation of the order between 7th and 15th January 1950 was held under a series of impressive ceremonies in the rock church of the Gellért hill without any disturbing events.

Signs were received from the authorities in the spring of 1950 indicating that the elimination of the leading group of the „clerical reaction” was only a question of time.

On the nights of 7th and 9th of June about 600-700 nuns and monks were settled out of the frontier zone near Yugoslavia. The Paulines were selected from this group - about 200 monks who were taken to the seat of dr. József Pétery bishop of Vác.

Between 7th October and 5th December 1950 about 2300 monks and 8800 nuns had to leave the monasteries and cloisters not yet occupied. No monasteries were left for the Pauline monks.

On 26th March 1951, on Easter Monday night, the Paulines living in Budapest were taken by the State Defence Authority (ÁVH). Hearing about it P. István Ferenc Ács escaped. His corpse was found on 1st April in Mecsekalja under the wheels of a train.

József Grősz, archbishop of Kalocsa, was sentenced in a „conception” case to 15 years prison, P. Ferenc Vezér from among the Paulines was sentenced to death and hanged on 28th March 1952. P. Jenő Csellár was sentenced to 10 years, P. Ákos Bolyós for 10 years, then P. Tádé Bihar, P. dr. Ágoston Gyéressy, P. Miklós Homonnay, P. Lukács Rába, P. László Sándor Szabó and Márton Juhász, Lajos Könyves, Paszkál Lelkes, Julián Oláh and Didák Túri were sentenced altogether to 150 years prison.

When the case of the Pauline Order was retried by the Supreme Court on 17th February 1992, all the accusations were declared to be unconfirmed and the whole process was announced to be illegitimate.

It was allowed by Rome to organise regular meetings instead of the noviciate that was stopped by the regulations of the state, and the members could also take vows. They started to pay attention again to those who were interested in the order, that is with the so called „juvenists”, who were ready to preserve the order. It was impossible to let the Pauline Order dissapear in 1950 in Hungary again, just as it