March 29, 1892: The Birthday of Venerable Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, Primate of Hungary

The Papal Artifacts’ Collection is primarily dedicated to artifacts connected to the papacy.  Individual popes, their biographies and multiple items belonging to them, including first and second class relics, make up the majority of this Collection.  But that isn’t all it is.

Father Kunst has a deep devotion to the saints as can be readily seen in viewing the Saints & Blesseds section of this site. We invite you to visit Papal History/Saints & Blesseds/Notable Individuals  to view the many canonized, beatified men and women and notable individuals who make up this section of the Collection. 

Nowadays it is often emphasized that the speaker breaking away from the practice of the past is speaking sincerely. I cannot say this in such a way. I need not break with my past; by the grace of God I am the same as I was before my imprisonment. I stand by my conviction physically and spiritually intact, just as I was eight years ago, although imprisonment has left its mark on me. Nor can I say that now I will speak more sincerely, for I have always spoken sincerely. (November 1st, 1956)

József Mindszenty was a cardinal and the head of the Roman Catholic Church as the Archbishop of Esztergom in Hungary. He became known as a steadfast supporter of Church freedom and opponent of communism and the brutal Stalinist persecution in his country. As a result, he was tortured and given a life sentence in a 1949 show trial that generated worldwide condemnation, including a United Nations resolution. Freed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he was granted political asylum and lived in the U.S. embassy in Budapest for 15 years. He was finally allowed to leave the country in 1971. He died in exile in 1975 in Vienna, Austria.

The item presented here is an 8 X 10-color photo of him, and it is signed. He is walking in a church procession.

Today he is buried in the Church of the Assumption, in Hungry, where pilgrims daily visit and pray for his intercession in their needs.

NOTE:  The sainthood cause of Mindszenty, who led the Archdiocese of Esztergom, Hungary’s primatial see, is in its initial stages. The decree of “heroic virtues” means he can be called “venerable.”

On Papal History/Notable Individuals, a more detailed biography of Jozsef Mindszenty is located. The complex political maneuvering required to protect him and to support him during the Cold War was nearly impossible as Pope Paul VI labored to honor the Cardinal’s wishes while attempting to care for the Catholic Church in Communist Hungary.

Papal Artifacts honors Cardinal Mindszenty for the gift of his life to our Church and recognizes the immense suffering he endured while trying to gain religious freedom for the people of Hungary.