Prakfalvi Endre: Roman Catholic Churches in Unified Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2003)

The Church of Perpetual Adoration, Queen Elizabeth Memorial Church, 1908

■ Medaí issued by the Altar Association of Budapest, with the church on the obvene and the Monstrance on the reverse

liar to a monastic enclosure. Thus it was made possible that two mock-aisles with galleries overhead be added to facilitate passage. In the lengthened axis of these, upstairs on either side of the large sanctuary bay, can be found the dual spaces of the oratory, each with five windows. The enlarged proportions served the accommodation of the nuns, which meant isolation from the laity. To the pedimented and pinnacled, 58-metre tall tower, which contained stairs, belongs a portico with orders of arches. In niches on the two sides of this portico stand the statues of the royal couple’s patron saints, SS Francis, and Elizabeth of the House of Árpád.

The large, canopied, architectonic altar made by Béla Seenger was donated by the emperor for the purposes of perpetual adoration (perpetua adoratio). Enthroned in the monstrance (mosntrancia) of the altar is the Holy Sacrament (eucharistia) placed there for perpetual adoration. The basis of the reality marked by the Eucharist is the Last Supper, as described in Luke above all (Luke 22.19-20). It is there that Jesus gives his "body" and "blood" in the form of bread and wine. In the transubstantiation in the mysteries of bread and wine, the body and the blood of Christ, "which is shed for many, for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26.28) are made to appear during the holy mass in the Eucharist. (In other churches the Holy Sacrament can only be seen at the elevation of the Host and the adoration of the Holy Sacrament.)

The church was consecrated by Bishop Medárd Kohl, on behalf of Prince Primate Kolos Vaszary, on 8 September 1908, the day of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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