Vilmos Apor
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Vilmos Apor de Altorja (29 February 1892 – 2 April 1945) was a Hungarian
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
prelate, born as a
baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
in the noble
Apor family The Apor family (different branches styled '' altorjai'' or '' zaláni'') is a family of ancient Hungarian nobility, which played a major role in Transylvanian history. It has several branches, which held different ranks over the years, includi ...
, and served as a bishop during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He became famous for protesting against the persecution of the Hungarian
Jewish population As of 2020, the world's "core" Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewis ...
and for his steadfast commitment to the poor. His outreach also extended to abuse victims with a particular emphasis on the protection of women - it would be this latter point that saw him sustain fatal injuries leading to his death. The bishop dedicated himself to being an opponent of both
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and used his sermons as a chance to condemn them though coming at a great personal risk to himself. But he was a beloved figure in his diocese where people hailed him as a great saint upon learning of his death which came as a profound shock and loss to the diocese he served during the course of most of the war. The beatification process opened on 5 March 1991 and culminated after
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 ...
presided over the beatification in
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on 9 November 1997.


Life

Vilmos Apor de Altorja was born in 1892 as the sixth of eight children to the nobles Baron Gábor
Apor Apor is a Hungarian name. In older sources, the name is sometimes spelled Opour, Opor or Upor. It can refer to: * Apor (chieftain), a 10th-century Hungarian tribal leader * Apor family, a family of ancient Transylvanian and Hungarian nobility (name ...
(1851–98) and Countess Fidelia
Pálffy ab Erdöd The House of Pálffy ab Erdöd, also known as ''Pálffy von Erdöd'', ''Pálffy de Erdöd'', or ''Pálffy of Erdöd'', is the name of a Hungarian noble family. Several members of the family held significant positions in the Habsburg monarchy. H ...
(1863–1934); one was stillborn and three died in their childhoods. One sister was Gizella and another was Henrietta who was his junior and an elder brother was Gábor. His elder brother served in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
but later became a Hungarian delegate to the
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until his resignation in 1944 in protest of the German occupation of his homeland. His father died in his childhood due to complications from
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. His mother was strict but caring and imparted sage religious instruction to her children. He served as an
altar server An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helps bring up the gifts, brings up the bo ...
during his childhood and his love for the priesthood intensified to the stage where he harbored an interest in becoming a priest himself. Bishop Miklós Széchnyi was his uncle. Year one of his initial education saw him teach Henrietta how to read and she often got him to instruct her in
catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...
. He even asked his mother once for a
chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. Re ...
and
missal A missal is a liturgical book containing instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the liturgical year. Versions differ across liturgical tradition, period, and purpose, with some missals intended to enable a pries ...
for
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. He attended high school at a
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
-run school in
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where his desires to become a priest intensified further despite his initial
homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...
. Apor liked
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
as well as historical studies and received outstanding marks in these subjects while a treatise on the historical Church earned him a prize; he also liked
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
and
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
. Apor then transferred to another Jesuit school at
Kalocsa Kalocsa (; hr, Kaloča or ''Kalača''; sr, Kaloča or Калоча; german: Kollotschau) is a town in Bács-Kiskun county, Hungary. It lies south of Budapest. It is situated in a marshy but highly productive district, near the left bank of the ...
. He decided to begin his studies for the priesthood despite his mother's wish that he wait a little while longer - she consented at Christmas in 1909 - and the local bishop was delighted to receive him in 1910 despite the fact that Apor was not there for long. The bishop sent him to
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
for further studies with the Jesuits in 1910 where he later received a
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
in theological studies; the rector there was a relative of his. He was at the old theological institute of Nikolaihaus for a brief period before moving to the new Canisianum. Apor was made a subdeacon on 22 August 1915 and was elevated to the
diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
on 23 August. He received his
ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...
to the priesthood on 24 August 1915 and he celebrated his first
Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
on 25 August with his mother and sisters Henrietta and Gizella in attendance. Gabor could not be there because he was on the battlefront and was unable to seek leave. Apor was first sent to Gyula on 31 August 1915 and he preached his first sermon on the following 8 September. On 27 March 1916 he opened an office for the protection of women that became a predominant focus for him on his pastoral mission while on 4 January 1917 he was sent as a chaplain to the Italian front before being transferred as such to
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and then back to Gyula at the start of 1919 at the end of the war.
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appointed him as a bishop in 1941 and he later received his
episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...
a month later; his brother Gabor paid for his new episcopal vestments. He had received word from the
papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...
Angelo Rotta Angelo Rotta (9 August 1872 – 1 February 1965) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. As the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest at the end of World War II, he was involved in the rescue of the Jews of Budapest from the Nazi Holocaust. He is ...
of his appointment; the government had once recommended him to be an auxiliary bishop in 1936 and then as the
Bishop of Veszprém A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
in 1939 though both were denied. The see he was appointed to saw him as the third on the list but the pope decided to forgo selecting the first and instead chose Apor; his appointment could have also been due to the intervention of Rotta who perhaps knew of Apor. He took formal possession of his new episcopal see on 2 March 1941. On 25 February 1941 - in a unanimous decision - the town council of Gyula made him an honorary citizen due to his commitment to its people and his strong and tireless activism. He became noted for his strong dedication to the poor and his tireless commitment to a range of
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
issues. In summer 1944 he wrote to the Hungarian
Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
Jusztinian Serédi to persuade him to take a strong stance against the government. He also appealed to the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
headquarters in
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in an attempt to free the Jews of his diocese from the
ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
and negotiated with the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
command to spare the town from a siege. The introduction of racial laws sought to further make matters worse and so the bishop spoke out for those affected from racial slurs and other forms of persecution. He provided supplies to those Jews being deported through his diocese and also sheltered those made homeless after air raids in the episcopal palace while he himself withdrew to a small room for himself. On the afternoon of 28 March 1945 -
Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
- as Soviet troops reached his diocese he offered safe haven to numerous women and children in his residence and also protected women who feared being raped. Four or five drunken Soviet soldiers arrived with the intention of bringing 100 women to their barracks but Apor had them well-hidden in the cellar. He refused to give them up and a long altercation saw an officer making threats with his gun and soon gave chase to a girl who came out of her hiding place; the girl screamed "Uncle Vilmos! Help!" and he ran to her defense and shouted at them: "Out! Get out of here!" The officers turned to leave but one officer turned around and opened fire with a machine gun that shot him three times. Apor suffered a first shot that grazed his forehead as well as a second in the right sleeve of his cassock and the third that perforated his
abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...
. Meanwhile the soldiers became frightened and fled the scene. He lent on the arms of two of his aides and walked towards the cellar with blood coming from his forehead. A doctor administered first aid and Apor's sister Gizella aided the doctor in placing her brother on a stretcher which a blanket to cover him. But getting to the hospital took longer due to checkpoints and had to stop several times since the Soviets wanted to inspect the ambulance; the blanket had to be taken off him on these occasions so the Soviets could see there were no hidden treasure. Professors Jung and Petz - who had known Apor - performed the operation which seemed to be successful and saw a slight improvement on
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when he received the
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with his sister at his side. He thanked
God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
for having accepted his sacrifice and for the fact that the women he protected were still safe. On
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
his condition deteriorated for an infection had set in; he made his confession and was given the Anointing of the Sick but pain increased. He remained lucid with his sister and Doctor Jung at his side in addition to the nurses and the parish priest. He died from his injuries not long after in the afternoon of 2 April 1945. István Sándor witnessed a stretcher on 3 April being carried from the hospital and saw the bishop's remains as it was being transported. The funeral was put on hold due to conflict in the area but was carried out within a week of his death. His remains were buried in a
Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...
church; his confessor was the Carmelite priest Erno Szeghy who had served as such since 1943 or 1944. His remains were later relocated to the diocesan cathedral.
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 ...
visited his tomb in 1996.


Legacy

There now stands a statue in District XII of
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
in his honor and the place itself has been named Apor Vilmos tér according to the Hungarian standard of name order. The theologian and cardinal-elect
Hans Urs von Balthasar Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905 – 26 June 1988) was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century. He was announced as his choice to become a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, ...
was his nephew.


Beatification

The beatification process was held in his old diocese in a diocesan process that spanned from 1989 until 1990; the formal start came on 5 March 1991 after the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...
issued the official "
nihil obstat ''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment. Publishing The phrase ''ni ...
" and titled the late bishop as a
Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...
. The C.C.S. later validated this process in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
on 31 May 1991 and received the
Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...
dossier from the postulation in 1996. Theologians approved the cause on 3 June 1997 as did the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. on 1 July 1997. John Paul II confirmed on 7 July 1997 that Apor was killed "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith) and thus approved his beatification. The pope presided over Apor's beatification on 9 November 1997 in
Saint Peter's Square Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Bot ...
.


References


External links


Hagiography Circle

Saints SQPN


{{DEFAULTSORT:Apor, Vilmos 1892 births 1945 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Hungary Anti-poverty advocates Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Bishops of Győr Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era Clergy in World War II Deaths by firearm in Hungary Hungarian beatified people Vilmos Hungarian anti-communists People from Sighișoara People murdered in Hungary People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust Hungarian civilians killed in World War II Soviet World War II crimes World War I chaplains Hungarian murder victims