Stefan Sándor

Stefan Sándor, 1931

Stefan Sándor SDB (born October 26, 1914 in Szolnok , † June 8, 1953 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian friar and martyr . He was beatified on October 19, 2013 .

Life

Stefan Sándor was the first-born son of Stefan Sándor, an unskilled worker for the Hungarian railway company Magyar Államvasutak , and Maria Fekete. Aggravated by the situation of the First World War , he and his brothers László and János grew up in poor circumstances. Nevertheless, his parents attached great importance to a good school education. After attending primary school and from 1924 to 1928 the community school, Sándor went to the Royal Vocational School for Wood and Metal to learn the trades of lathe operator and copper caster . He graduated in 1931.

In early 1936, Sándor moved to Budapest to learn the printing trade at the Clarisseum vocational school run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in the Rákospalota district . During this training he decided to become a Salesian of Don Bosco himself and completed a two-year postulate . Until the beginning of his novitiate on April 1, 1938 in Mezőnyárád, he worked on a voluntary basis in the youth and acolyte work of the religious community. Since the novitiate was interrupted by the conscription to the military, he was not able to make his first temporary profession as a Salesian brother until September 8, 1940 .

In 1942 he was drafted again for military service and worked as a radio operator in the intelligence service during World War II , first in southern Hungary , then in northern or upper Hungary , in Transylvania and finally in Russia with the 2nd Hungarian Army . After the defeat he was transferred to the West and experienced the end of the war in Germany. In 1944 he was taken prisoner by the Americans there.

After his release from captivity and his return to Hungary, he worked from the spring of 1945 in the order's print shop in the Clarisseum in Rákospalota. He passed the master's examination there. As head of the Association of Young Catholic Workers (KIOE), he got involved again in youth work. He continued this activity after the Communist takeover and the ban on the association by the Ministry of the Interior in the summer of 1946. In the Clarisseum, next to the print shop, there was a children's home founded as an orphanage in 1882, which was continued as a boys' home by the Salesians in 1925. There was also a park and a boy scout house in the institute . In 1946, Sándor made his perpetual vows there.

From 1949 onwards, the Political Police Államvédelmi Hatóság built up a youth force through a three-month training course, to which poor and destitute young people in particular were recruited, some of them forcibly. Some of Stefan Sándor's youngsters were also affected. But some of them stayed in contact with him. When, in 1950, numerous religious orders in Hungary were banned from their activities and the Salesian Institute was also affected by the violent closings, Sándor continued his underground youth work - in addition to his work as a sacristan . He organized trips, meetings in private homes, and taught religion.

As early as the end of February 1951, the Communist Political Police became aware of some of Sándor's activities, so that he was secretly observed. After receiving a warning, his superiors organized his escape to the West. He was already near the western border with a forged passport when he decided to return to Budapest so as not to abandon his teenagers. He initially worked under the code name Stefan Kiss in the Persil factory in Budapest . Without registering, he lived in the apartment of his confrere and candidate for a priesthood, Tibor Daniel. The camouflage worked so well that he even received the award as a people's educator ("Népnevelői Kitüntetetést") for his youth work in the Persil factory.

When the real identity was discovered in 1952, it was also revealed that a member of the party guard , which was a kind of life guard for the leader of the communist party in the country, was his former student and had continued to be in secret contact with him. Therefore, Sándor was arrested on July 28, 1952 under the pretext of "inciting the party leader". In prison, he was beaten and mistreated several times without being forced to confess. After weeks of interrogation, he and 15 other companions - nine party guards, four Salesians from Don Bosco, one adult civilian and a fifteen-year-old high school student - were finally indicted and brought before a military tribunal.

Death and adoration

At the end of its top secret session from October 28 to 30, 1952, the Budapest Military Court sentenced four people, including Stefan Sándor, to death by hanging; the others received terms of between five and 15 years in prison. A clemency Sandor was rejected on 12 March 1953rd The death sentence was carried out three months later on June 8, 1953.

His family had not heard from him since his arrest. It was not until 1955 that the father was notified that his son had been sentenced to death for undemocratic incitement and had been executed.

Rehabilitation

Sándor was rehabilitated by a court in Budapest in 1994.

Adoration

In Sándor's birth town Szolnok, a symbolic place was set up in the urn cemetery of the Holy Trinity Church (also known as the Franciscan Church), because it has not yet been possible to fully clarify where he was buried. Today it is believed that it is most likely in plot 301 of the Rákoskeresztúr cemetery .

Beatification process

The diocesan beatification process began on May 24, 2006 and ended on December 8, 2007. On March 27, 2013, Stefan Sándor was recognized as a martyr by Pope Francis . On October 19, 2013, he was beatified in a service in front of St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest by Cardinal Angelo Amato SDB, the current Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints . The sermon was given by the Hungarian primate , Cardinal Péter Erdő .

The liturgical feast day is June 8th .

literature

• Flavio Depaula SDB: Beatificazione del Servo di Dio Stefano Sándor . Új Ember, Debrecen 2013.
• Erzsébet Lengyel: Szaléziak Magyarországon , Don Bosco Kiadó, Budapest 2013, ISBN 9789639956285
• Gyula Zsédely SDB: Sándor István SDB vértanú . Don Bosco Kiadó, Budapest 2002, ISBN 9638456906
• János Szőke SDS: Sándor István vértanú , Don Bosco Kiadó, Budapest 2011, ISBN 9789639956186

Web links

Commons : Stefan Sandor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short biography and materials for beatification on iss.donbosco.de
• Biography on sdb.org (English)