(ANS – Budapest) – Two celebrations were held in Hungary to mark the 60th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Hungarian Salesian Brother Stephen Sándor, which took place on 8 June 1953.  Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General, took part in the events, accompanied by Fr Flavio Depaula, Provincial Secretary. The celebrations also looked forward to the beatification of the Servant of God which will take place in the Cathedral Square in Budapest on 19 October.

The first commemorative ceremony, organized by the parish priest Fr Gyorgy Mathe, was held on Saturday 8 June in the parish church in Szolnok, the city where Stephen Sándor was born on 26 October 1914. During the Mass, at which the Provincial Fr Bela Ábraham presided, Fr Cameroni told how Stephen Sándor had grown up in a united Christian family. He quoted the testimony of Stephen’s brother János: “We spent our childhood together and grew up in a happy religious family. Our parents were very simple.  My father used to bring us to Mass every Sunday. He gave us an example for the whole of our lives. Faith, love of our country and love of the family were the most important values in our family. He had a profound faith and we could see this already when we were children.  We prayed together at home, went to Church together and approached the Eucharist together. We still have the rosary beads our mother used when she prayed with us.”
 
In his capacity as Postulator General of the Salesian Family, Fr Cameroni stressed that the witness of Stephen Sándor and the gift of his forthcoming beatification, give a strong message to the Christian community at Szolnok and to Christian communities everywhere about the essential role of families in handing on the faith.

On the following day, 9 June, there was a second celebration in the Clarisseum Church in Budapest. It was here that Stephen Sándor entered as a young aspirant. Here too he  learned and practised his trade as a printer, and lived his life as a young religious with a great passion for education among the printing apprentices, the young people of the Oratory and various youth groups. Here also he ended his life in the dark years of the dictatorship of the communist regime.

In his homily Fr Cameroni mentioned some characteristics of Stephen Sándor’s personality – his tenacity and stamina in work, even in the most difficult situations; his living example of the spirit that marks the members of the Salesian Society; his sense of duty, purity, prayerfulness and fidelity in the practice of Christian principles.

At the end of the liturgical celebration, at the statue of Don Bosco in the Clarisseum Church Square, a commemorative ceremony was held for the Salesians who died during the communist regime. Present at the ceremony were Janos Pokorni and Laszlo Ari, two of the survivors of the trial in which Stephen Sándor was put to death. Their testimony was very moving.

On 8 June, the day of the anniversary of the death of Stephen Sándor, the Rector Major Fr Pascual Chávez sent a message in which he exhorted all to get to know and imitate the Servant of God who “in all the circumstance  of his life responded with dignity and constancy to the demands of his Salesian vocation.”

Published 12/06/2013