Benedictine cardinal who led the Hungarian Catholic Church as Archbishop of Esztergom and Prince Primate in 1927–1945
Born Szapucsek György into a roofer’s family of Slovak origin at Deáki, now in Slovakia, he joined the Benedictines at Pannonhalma in 1901 and was ordained in 1908. In 1927 Pius XI appointed him Archbishop of Esztergom and made him a cardinal, and as Prince Primate he sat in the upper house of parliament in his own right. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 he organised Church aid for the Polish refugees in Hungary. In spring 1944 he sought to have Catholic converts exempted from deportation but won the exemption only for priests, monks and nuns; he made no public condemnation of the deportations and on 29 June decided against issuing a pastoral letter. He regarded Szálasi’s inauguration as “Leader of the Nation” as illegal and refused to attend his oath-taking, and died in an air-raid shelter in Esztergom in March 1945.
Career timeline
- 1901Joined the Benedictines at Pannonhalma
- 1908Ordained priest
- 1910s–1927Professor at Sant’Anselmo, Rome; procurator general of the order
- 1927–1945Archbishop of Esztergom, Prince Primate, cardinal
- 1944Sought exemption for converts; decided against a pastoral letter
The Reformed pastor-president who declared neutrality before Soviet tanks
At a press conference on November 1, 1956, asked about the likelihood of a new Soviet assault: "Such a tragedy is humanly impossible… it will never take place."
A Reformed pastor who became the face of Hungary's post-war democracy as founder and leader of the Independent Smallholders' Party. After his party's landslide victory, he served as prime minister (1945–46) and was elected the republic's first president, but communist salami tactics forced his resignation in 1948 on fabricated treason charges against his son-in-law; he spent the next eight years under house arrest. In October 1956 he joined Imre Nagy's revolutionary government as minister of state and was present at the November 1 cabinet meeting that voted unanimously to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and declare neutrality. Arrested after the crushing of the uprising, he was sentenced to six years and amnestied in 1959; the Supreme Court annulled his conviction in 1989.
Career timeline
- 1921–1929Reformed pastor; edited church periodicals
- 1936–1944Smallholders MP; pressed to exit the war; hiding after German occupation
- 1945–1946Prime Minister
- 1946–1948President of the Republic; forced to resign
- 1948–1956House arrest
- 1956.10–11Minister of State in Nagy's revolutionary government
- 1958–1959Sentenced to 6 years; amnestied 1959
- 1989Rehabilitated
Archbishop of Esztergom and cardinal sentenced to life in a 1949 show trial, who sheltered in the US embassy in Budapest from 1956
Born at Csehimindszent in Vas County into a family with a German surname, he was ordained in 1915 and in 1919 was arrested by the Károlyi and then the Kun government. He later took the name Mindszenty from his home village. Consecrated Bishop of Veszprém in March 1944, he was arrested by the Arrow Cross government in November and released in April 1945. Appointed Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate in 1945 and made a cardinal in 1946, he resisted the Communists, notably over church schools. Arrested in December 1948 and beaten until he confessed, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at a show trial in February 1949. Freed during the 1956 revolution, he took refuge in the US embassy when the Soviets invaded and stayed there fifteen years. Allowed to leave in 1971, he settled in Vienna; in February 1974 Paul VI declared the see of Esztergom vacant, and he died in Vienna in 1975.
Career timeline
- 1915Ordained priest
- 1919Arrested by the Károlyi and Béla Kun governments
- 1944Bishop of Veszprém; arrested by the Arrow Cross government in November
- 1945–1974Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary
- 1946Made a cardinal
- 1948–1949Arrested; sentenced to life at a show trial
- 1956–1971Freed in the revolution; refuge in the US embassy in Budapest
- 1971–1975Exile in Vienna
The Reformed pastor whose attempted eviction in Timișoara sparked the Romanian Revolution
The crowd forgot the initial reason for their resistance, and in general terms they opposed the regime itself.
A Hungarian Reformed pastor from Cluj, he openly criticised Ceaușescu's systematisation programme (the planned destruction of rural villages) and denounced human rights abuses in a secretly recorded interview with Hungarian television, making himself a target of the Securitate. On 16 December 1989, when parishioners gathered at his Timișoara parsonage to block his forced eviction, the protest swelled into an anti-regime uprising that became the direct trigger of the Romanian Revolution. After the revolution he was elected bishop of the Reformed Diocese of Királyhágómellék in Oradea, dedicated himself to rebuilding the church and Hungarian-language education, and served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2019.
Career timeline
- 1975Graduated Protestant Theological Institute of Cluj; ordained Reformed pastor
- 1981–1982Contributed to underground journal Ellenpontok; first Securitate harassment
- 1986Appointed assistant pastor of the Reformed Church in Timișoara
- 1988–1989Openly criticised systematisation; secret TV interview made him a Securitate target
- 1989.12.16Protest against his eviction swelled into the Romanian Revolution
- 1990Elected bishop of the Reformed Diocese of Királyhágómellék in Oradea
- 2007–2019Member of the European Parliament (Vice-President 2010–2012)
