Benedict Kisdy ( hu, Benedek Kisdy, sk, Benedikt Kišdy) (c. 1598 – 22 June 1660) was a Hungarian

Roman Catholic bishop In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an Holy Orders, ordained Minister (Catholic Church), minister who holds the fullness of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, sacrament of Holy orders in the Catholic Church, holy orders and is responsible ...

in the 17th century. He was the founder of the Royal University (Universitas Cassoviensis) in present-day

Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...

and the

Bishop of Eger The Archdiocese of Eger ( la, Archidioecesis Agriensis) is an archdiocese in Northern Hungary, its centre is the city of Eger. History * 1000: Established as Diocese of Eger * August 9, 1804: Promoted as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Eger Ordi ...

.Kisdy
from ''Hungarian Catholic Encyclopedia'' retrieved 15 June 2013

Biography

From 1596 to 1700, Kassa,

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

(today: Košice, Slovakia) was the seat of the bishops of Eger. It was during this time, from 1648 until 1660, that Benedict was bishop. On 26 February 1657, he founded an academy in Košice, the first of its kind in the city. He went on to present it with 40,000 tallers. He placed it under the teaching administration of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. The academy became a university with promulgation of a bull on 6 August 1660 by the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

Leopold I. In 1777, the university was removed from Jesuit administration and became a Royal University. He is buried in the Franciscan seminary church in

Legacy

On 6 April 1979,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

made an address to a group of Hungarian bishops, priests and congregation members. At the start of the speech he mentioned the work of the

Hungarian College The ''Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum'', or simply ''Collegium Germanicum'', is a German-speaking seminary for Catholic priests in Rome, founded in 1552. Since 1580 its full name has been ''Pontificium Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum de Urb'' ...

and the alumni of that college, stating, "I do not want to pass over in silence the figure of Benedict Kisdy, whose admirable hymns still ring out in your churches."John Paul II speeches
from Vatican.va, retrieved 15 June 2013

Gallery

File:COA bishop HU Kisdy Benedek.png, His coat of arms, based on the relief on the altar in the Franciscan church in Košice File:Universitas Cassoviensis.jpg, Bull by Leopold I on the status of the University of Košice File:KisdyFotoThalerTamas.JPG, Portrait

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kisdy, Benedict Bishops of Eger 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Hungary 1590s births 1660 deaths Clergy from Košice

Biography

Legacy

Gallery

See also

References