The Hungarian Province of the Piarist Order with a living faith in the resurrection, informs that the Piarist father Dr. István Jelenits, named after the Ascension of the Lord, a retired high school, college and university teacher, passed away peacefully on September 26, 2024, strengthened by the sacraments, in the 92nd year of his life, the 70th year of his monastic life, and the 65th year of his priesthood. .
We will provide information about his funeral later.
Our colleague was born on December 16, 1932 in Berettyóújfalu. He graduated from Piarista High School in Budapest in 1951. In 1955, he graduated from the Hungarian department of the Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Arts. He entered the Piarist order in 1955, was ordained a priest four years later, and ordained a doctor of theology. From 1960, he taught religion and Hungarian language and literature at the Piarist High School in Kecskemét and later in Budapest, until 2003. From 1965, he also taught biblical subjects in the capital at Kalazantinum, the religious studies college of the order, and from 2000 at its successor, the Sapientia Monastic College of Religious Studies. Between 1985 and 1995, he was the provincial head of the Piarist order in Hungary. From 1992, he taught for several years at the Piarist school in Göd, and from 1993 at the Piarist school in Vác, later also at the Apor Vilmos Catholic College in Vác. From 1995, he was professor of aesthetics and head of department at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, professor emeritus since 2015.
From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the board of the National Council of Public Education, from 1998 to 2003 of the National Textbook Publishing Company, and since 1995 he was the president of the János Pilinszky Literary and Art Society.
His work and service have been recognized with numerous awards.
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István Jelenits gave an interview to our editors on the occasion of his 90th birthday. We talked about his life with the Széchenyi Prize-winning Piarist monk, theologian, writer, Hungarian and religious studies teacher, and we quote from it below.
– Teacher, how do you remember your parents, what did you get from them for traveling?
“I can thank my parents for everything.” My father was a peasant child and became a first-generation lawyer and intellectual. He became an official at the then truncated county seat, Berettyóújfalu. I was born there. My mother was also born in the Great Plains. He came from an educated family, many of whom were teachers, officials, and reformed ministers.
My father read a lot, not for any benefit, but because he enjoyed it.
There were several times that when he got to a certain part, he gathered us together and read the given section. That is, he was a thinker, a person living in culture. He led me to the love of reading. On my mother’s side, after the war, we moved to her birthplace, Kunszentmiklós, and lived there for a while. Since the Russians occupied the school building, I went to high school in the Reformed church where my mother’s ancestors preached. There was a classroom in each corner of the church. Despite the difficult circumstances, I managed to keep alive the love of learning, which is my family heritage.
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– His life was defined by teaching, either as a Hungarian or religion teacher. How do you look back on those times?
– It was good to experience that the student is not a bag to be filled with knowledge, but a living, thinking person. I was able to teach and educate at the same time. It was a pleasure to be a partner in making young people from different life situations fall in love with the culture that shaped them. Windows opened in them and in front of them, which affected the perspectives of their lives. I could see countless times how much this helped them shape their lives after their student years.
The teacher has a very important and privileged place in life, he deserves all material, professional and social respect.
– He has been surrounded by books everywhere throughout his life, including here in his room where he lives. What do they teach us, how do they help us develop our humanity?
– Man is a thinking being created in the image of God. Just as the Good Lord does not give up dealing with us, we must not give up working on ourselves and the other person either. It is the essence of our humanity.
We read and teach in a world in which we also live in wonder. In the end, we don’t have to be able to transfer knowledge, but rather the responsibility of searching.
And that this search is full of hope, even if we don’t understand the secret of life, we see it completely. Life does not lead you along a precisely written course. Many times it can seem as if God is playing with us, while he does the exact opposite: he takes us seriously and has a lot of surprises in store for us to marvel at.
– What does it mean to Mr. Teacher to be a Catholic?
– In my opinion, being a Catholic means that we know that God feels that even those separated from him belong to him. Today we find that it is not denominations that break away from the Church, but more and more people due to secularism. Facing this situation and remaining a Christian and a Catholic is a challenge. It’s a strange task that
never give up on the other person, so that we live not in litigation, but in hope, to keep open the paths that lead to the other person.
Let’s not be narrow-minded, and even though the fast-paced world seems to lead to depersonalization, let’s take care of our soul and the other person.
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“And what does it mean to be Hungarian?”
– It is also clear from my last name that I am not an “original Hungarian” in terms of my origin. On my father’s side, my ancestors came from the South, and on my mother’s side, we are from the Great Plains. For me, those experienced in the Hungarian language, poetry, literature, and our history give me the beauty on which I can say I am Hungarian. But
this wealth invites me not to be one-sided, but to be attentive to others, hopeful and understanding.
– Based on your life experience, what would you say about what is really important in life?
“It’s important to never despair.” It is also important to learn, throughout our lives, in all situations. When we experience the upheavals of life, we must know that we grow and become informed as a result of them. This is what we need so that we don’t only get injuries in life, but also helpful pushes, from which we can then draw strength to be able to go on.
You have to live with humility and attention.
Then, even if we do not find the easier part of life, we will realize that there is always a path open to us in the given circumstances and through our decisions, on which we can move on.
– When you look back on your life, what are you thankful for?
“I am grateful to the almighty God that I have never had a prolonged illness.” This is missing from my experience. I am also grateful that my life and my faith have never been stagnated or stagnated. I never felt that my life and my faith were collapsing. I understand difficulties, but I am grateful that I have never been fatally sad.
I look back at my life in amazement. I didn’t know it would be like this. Most of the time I could only see up to my nose.
But when I worked on the solution in each situation, I always experienced that ways opened up in front of me. Connections were revealed, things became understandable. Looking back, I was able to experience that the Good Lord guided me throughout my life. I’m grateful that you never asked me for more than I could give.
It amazes me how special life is. Let this big game happen and be a part of it. This is beautiful.
Give him eternal rest, Lord!
The full interview IDE click eleven is available.
Photo: Zita Merényi
Hungarian Courier
