János Esterházy

On 25 March 2019, Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski appointed a tribunal to carry out the beatification process of János Esterházy, which comprises: Fr. Andrzej Scąber – delegate of the Archbishop, Fr. Szczepan Tadeusz Praśkiewicz, PhD, OCD – promoter of justice, Fr. Piotr Lamprecht, OSA – notary.

János Esterházy was born in 1901 in Slovakia, which at that time belonged to the Hungarian part of the Habsburg monarchy and for centuries was referred to as Upper Hungary. He came from an old, aristocratic family from Transylvania, and through his mother Elżbieta Tarnowska also had links with Polish aristocracy. As a result of the division of Europe after World War I, Slovakia became part of Czechoslovakia. The newly formed state featured a large Hungarian minority, which was represented by János Esterházy.

During World War II, he provided assistance to Poles crossing the Carpathian Mountains to get to the West; he also helped Slovaks and Jews. Arrested by NKVD after the war, János Esterházy spent three years in a gulag. He was then handed over to the authorities of Czechoslovakia to be sentenced to death, the sentence later changed to life imprisonment. He died of exhaustion in Mirov Prison on 8 March 1957.

The postulator of the beatification process, Fr. Paweł Cebula OFM Conv., drew attention to four aspects of Esterházy’s spirituality: the desire to surrender to God’s will, love of Christ present in the Eucharist, spiritual communion with the saints, as well as worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. – We hope that they will help us discover what God wants to say through his servant and that they will also help all those who stop themselves from knowing the truth about János  – concluded Fr. Paweł Cebula.

The ceremony was attended by the daughter of János Esterházy, Alice Esterhazy-Malfatti, who, in a letter addressed to the audience, emphasized that her father’s life was built on love.

M.B.

Źródło: franciszkanska3.pl