Törekvések egy magyarajkú ortodox püspökség létrehozására az 1930-as években. Németh István püspök életrajzához

Abstract

István Németh was born on 25th July, 1890. Having finished his Roman Catholic theological studies, he was ordained as a priest for the service of the Diocese of Vác on 24th June, 1914. Later on, he got married, converted to the Orthodox faith and first served as a cleric of the Serbian Orthodox Church and then as that of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Szentes. On 15th March, 1934, the unofficial (not state-authorized) ecclesiastical council of the Hungarian Orthodox Church, made up of its followers, elected him to be bishop. Not long after that, on 23rd September, 1934, he was also ordained as a bishop under the name of Mar Theodosius and was appointed 'the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of Hungary1 by Ephrem I (Mar Ignatius Afram I Barsoum), the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch. After the Second World War, István Németh left for the West, and continued his activity within the frames of Eastern Christianity. He deceased in Munich, in March, 1969. Bishop István Németh's activity in the 1930s fitted the endeavours of the Hungarian Orthodox believers to the establishment of an independent Church organization (a bishopric). In that spirit, the members of the Hungarian Orthodox Parish of Szentes - which had been founded by the Greeks in the past - first elected István Németh, the former Catholic priest using the Hungarian language during liturgies, to be their pastor, and then, with the co-operation of other Orthodox communities, they also strived to advance his election and ordination as a 'Hungarian Orthodox' bishop. At the same time, the Hungarian government - namely, its local political representatives (the local leaders of administration and the elected mayor, in particular), who initially supported the movement of Németh and others - also provided the Hungarian Orthodox Christians with pastors. The author of the present study reviews the events of István Németh's years spent in Szentes and the history of his election and ordination as a bishop. The primary source of the paper has been the file of the Orthodox Parish of Szentes (the documents of the Greek Orthodox Church of Szentes. XII. 4. Boxes 1-4) stored in the Szentes, Csongrád County Archives of the National Archives of Hungary.