Denis Farkasfalvy Explained

Denis Farkasfalvy (Hungarian: Farkasfalvy Dénes; June 23, 1936 – May 20, 2020) was a Hungarian-American Catholic priest and monk of the Cistercian Order. He was an abbot, theologian, author and translator.

Biography

Flight from Hungary, theological studies, and priestly ordination

His baptismal name was Miklós; his father was a mechanical engineer. As a schoolboy he attended the school run by Cistercian priests in his home town of Székesfehérvár, Hungary. After it was closed down by the communist government during the Second Hungarian Republic, in 1948 he transferred to the famous school run by Benedictines in Pannonhalma. He graduated in 1954 and became a clandestine Cistercian novice for Zirc Abbey in 1955; the monastery was officially suppressed at the time by the Hungarian People's Republic. His name in monastic life was Denis (Hungarian: Dénes) after Saint Denis of Paris. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 he took the advice of his novice master Lóránt Sigmond (1911–1964) and abbot Vendel Endrédy and fled. His journey led him via Austria (Heiligenkreuz Abbey) to Rome, where he enrolled at the Benedictine university St. Anselm's. He received his doctorate there in 1962. He made his solemn vows (for Zirc) in 1960 in the Abbey of Lilienfeld. This Austrian abbey also hosted his priestly ordination in 1961.[1]

Headmaster and abbot in Texas

Since most of the Zirc monks had fled Hungary for the US in 1954, Fr. Denis was sent to Irving, Texas in order to teach at the Our Lady of Dallas monastery school. Since the need for math teachers was great, he studied for and received a master's degree at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. As a student, he served as the chaplain to the School Sisters of Namur, who in turn helped him learn English. He was made Headmaster of Cistercian Prep, which was rapidly becoming an elite prep school, in 1969 and ran it for 12 years. He also taught several courses at university level at the University of Dallas.[1]

He was abbot from 1988 to 2012. Under his leadership, the abbey built a new and monumental church in the trademark Cistercian style, attracting international attention and many vocations. The entire abbey was renovated in the course of the project.

He died at age 83, having been in ill health for several years and then contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas.[2]

Theologian and translator

Farkasfalvy published widely on theology, writing in English,[3] Hungarian, and French. He also worked as the Hungarian translator of Latin texts and the work of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He served as a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 2002 to 2014,[4] the first Hungarian to have held this honor. In 2010 he was awarded the St. Stephen prize (Stephanus-díj) for Theology in Budapest. In Dallas, he was given the Catholic Foundation Award in 2016.[5]

Publications (a selection)

Original works

Translations into Hungarian

Bible

Translations of Rainer Maria Rilke

Secondary Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Official obituary, Our Lady of Dallas, retrieved 2020-05-24.. May 31, 2020. May 24, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200524183246/https://www.cistercian.org/abbey/history/our-fathers/pdf/Denis.pdf. dead.
  2. Web site: Denis Farkasfalvy Obituary - Dallas, TX | Dallas Morning News. May 31, 2020.
  3. Denis Farkasfalvy, The First Step in Spiritual Life: Conversion. Analecta Cisterciensia 46 (1990), pp. 65–84.
  4. Denis Farkasfalvy, The Pontifical Biblical Commission's Document on Jews and Christians and Their Scriptures: Attempt at an Evaluation. Communio 29.4 (2002), pp. 715-737.
  5. https://www.catholicfoundation.com/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/TheGoodWord_fal15.pdf "Cistercian’s Fr. Denis Farkasfalvy Selected as 2016 Catholic Foundation Award Honoree."
  6. Harry Gamble. Book Review. Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 105, no. 1, 1986, pp. 168–169. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3261150. Accessed 24 May 2020.
  7. Alkuin Schachenmayr, Book Review. Analecta Cisterciensia 60 (2010), pp. 360–361.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Denis Farkasfalvy".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.