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Modern · Bishop
Card. József Mindszenty
Archbishop of Esztergom
ConfessorModern Witness
1892 – 1975
1915
Ordained
1944
Consecrated Bishop
Esztergom
Diocese
Hungary
Country
The Life
József Mindszenty was Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary, and one of the great confessor-bishops of the age of dictatorships. Made Bishop of Veszprém in 1944 — imprisoned that same year by the Arrow Cross — he was raised to the primatial see in 1945 and created a cardinal in 1946.
Arrested by the Communists in 1948, tortured, and sentenced to life in a notorious 1949 show trial, he became a worldwide symbol of resistance. Freed in the 1956 revolution, he took refuge in the U.S. embassy in Budapest, where he lived for fifteen years. He died in exile in 1975.
Notable Actions
- Primate of Hungary; resisted both the Nazi Arrow Cross and the Communist regime
- Arrested in 1948, tortured, and sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1949 show trial that drew worldwide condemnation
- Freed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and granted asylum in the U.S. embassy in Budapest
- Lived fifteen years (1956-1971) inside the embassy rather than abandon his flock
- Died in exile in Vienna in 1975; his cause for canonization is open
Portrait: Unknown authorUnknown author / Wikimedia Commons