BEATIFICATION

Title photo: MTI / Imre Földi

​The process of beatification was initiated by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 1996 at the initiative of Cardinal László Paskai, archbishop of the diocese of the place of death of Sara Salkahazi. The process of beatification lasted exactly 10 years.

THE APOSTOLIC LETTER
We accapted the petition pf our brother
Cardinal Péter Erdő,
together with that of many of our brothers Bishops
and many of the faithful and having asked also the opinion of the Congregation for Beatification, we permit by our apostolic authority that the servant of God
SÁRA SALKAHÁZI,
martyr and virgin, a Sister
of the Society of the Sisters of Social Service,
who gave her life
for the poor and the persecuted,
be venerated from today on as
BLESSED,
and that her feast may be kept at places and in a manner prescribed by law each year
on the 11th of May.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dated in Rome, in the 2006th year of our Lord, and the second year of our papacy.
THE DAY OF BEATIFICATION
The venerable sister
SÁRA SALKAHÁZI,
the Social Sister,
the virgin and the martyr,
was declared blessed
by His Eminence Cardinal
Péter Erdő,
commissioned by
Pope Benedict XVI.
ON 17.9.2006
IN BUDAPEST
on the square
in front of
the Basilica of St. Stefan.
In the morning at 10.00 am
the hour of prayer began
and than at 11:00 am
followed a ceremony of beatification
during the solemn Holy Mass.

​St. Stephen’s Basilica in​​ Budapest
16th September 2006

You can see and download full text HERE.

St. Stephen’s Basilica in​​ Budapest
17th September 2006


“…THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS THEIRS…”  /  MOSAIC ABOUT SARA’S LIFE

/texts signed • are from sr. Sára‘s diary/

I. INTRODUCTION

HYMN
Our life is the life of Christ,
Our life is the love of God the Father,
Our life is the Spirit of the Church,
Our life, our life is Christ. Our life is Christ, alleluia,
Our life is hidden in Him,
Our life is Christ, alleluia,
Our life is Christ.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 5.1-10.

GREETING

Praised be Jesus Christ!
It is with honour and joy that we greet everyone who is celebrating with us today the beatification of a Hungarian religious woman, Sára Salkaházi. By the mercy of God, she reached the fullness of love during the short 45 years of her life, and martyrdom as the peak of her life in 1944. Now she can see the living God! She is blessed, because the Kingdom of Heaven is hers. She left the light and the example of her life with us, her contemporaries, bearing witness that here and now, in modern times, it is possible to live a holy life. It has been nearly a thousand years since the last beatification event in Hungarian territory was celebrated. Today we can be united in a special way not only with the universal Church, but also with the history of our nation, and to the community of Hungarian saints beginning with those of the house of Árpád.
During this hour we have before the Mass, we will be commemorating Sára Salkaházi. We will awaken memories of her life consecrated to the love of God and human beings. In doing so, we will use for resources the Bible; parts of her personal diary that was preserved; quotations from Margaret Slachta, the foundress of the Sisters of Social Service, and other documents of the Church. Let us pray, let us celebrate and prepare ourselves together.
This is a feast of the Church, a feast of God and a feast-day for us all! It is the feast of the fulfilment of the Beatitudes.

HYMN
Our life is Christ, alleluia,
Our life is hidden in Him,
Our life is Christ, alleluia, Our life is Christ.

II. UP TO ENTRANCE

“Consecrated Life – deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord -, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus – the chaste, poor and obedient one – are made constantly “visible” in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realization in heaven. In every age there have been men and women who, obedient to the Father’s call and to the prompting of the Spirit, have chosen this special way of following Christ, in order to devote themselves to him with an “undivided” heart. Like the Apostles, they too have left everything behind in order to be with Christ and to put themselves, as he did, at the service of God and their brothers and sisters.”
/John Paul II: Vita Consecrata 1§/

When Israel was a child I loved him,…
I drew them with human cords, with bands of love;
I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; …
I stooped to feed my child.

/Hos 11. 1. 4./

My grandfather, a last century citizen of Kosice, and originally a settler here built a hotel! Next to it however, he built a hall that has been a home for art ever since that time. It is not brilliant balls or big banquets that are important in the life of this dance hall, but nights of art and concerts… This building too, has become a church, a church of art where artists pay homage to their Muses – and the audience to their artist!

• When I was a teacher, I was teaching little boys from a gypsy settlement in the second grade of the elementary school. During a break, one of them, a ragged and shabby-looking little boy produced a long stocking. From it, he poured out a great number of buttons to the floor. The others surrounded him admiring his treasures. I went there too, to admire the little shoddy, worthless buttons, which for him were more valuable than anything else. When I returned to the teacher’s desk, he came up to me saying with proud joy. “I want to give these two buttons to the little Miss”; and he stretched out his dirty little palm towards me with two buttons. Another boy could not help crying out: “But Gyuri, these are your two smartest buttons! I have kept this episode as one of the most beautiful memories of my life! Little Gyuri Kovály gave me his two smartest and most valuable buttons as a gift!…

III. ENTRACE INTO COMMUNITY 

HYMN
Be blessed, oh my Lord, be blessed,
Be blessed, oh my Lord, be blessed,
May the earth bless you and may heaven bless you,
Be blessed, oh my Lord, be blessed.

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember… He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

/Is 6. 1. 5-8/

You accompany someone you know to some kind of a meeting without having any specific purpose, only out of friendship. You do not intend to sit there until the meeting ends, because you have something else on your schedule. Still, when the two of you arrive, you find yourself sitting down even though you don’t know what is going on. You can see a lot of young girls around you. You realize that you have become part of some movement. But you do not have time to find this out, because immediately one of the girls comes up to the front and begins to speak. You are not aware of what is happening to you. Under similar circumstances, you are usually quite conscious and observing. You have the habit of listening to what is being said. But now only snatches of the conversation reach you: “social issues…social responsibility… social work movements… public opinion has to be formed, … we need to influence the population… we have to fight for human rights and for the modification of laws… there should be less people in need of nursing, less people who have morally lost their way, and less people living in extreme poverty… There exists a society, the Society of Sisters of Social Service with the task of training skilled workers who have vocation, and who are consecrated in spirit, to perform the many kinds of social work…” You are not hearing the rest, you are only watching the Sister who is speaking as if she was speaking only to you. It seems you had known her for ages, you feel she is one of your family… Perhaps you do not yet understand clearly what she is saying. You don’t even know what it is that draws you here; to this society that was founded only recently… but something is drawing you, that much is certain. It is not something, it is rather Someone. It is the good God himself, who intended this environment for your consecrated life. And suddenly you become perfectly calm, calm as someone who found what she was looking for. You are still sitting at the meeting. A girl is talking to the group about an event that went very well. All are interested in it very much, but you are lost in thought…

“The Society of Sisters of Social Service was called into existence by the most recent times. In it the ancient monastic idea is combined with the latest modern progress. The Society realizes and proclaims in its fullness the essence of religious vocation: the absolute self-giving of self to God in Divine espousal. However, a freedom of activity unknown so far is granted to its members…”
                                                           /Margaret Slachta: From the Hermitage of the Desert to the Centre of Life 1928/

• Am I worthy of taking vows? Am I worthy of a religious vocation? No, no, a hundred times no! Two years ago I was still a smoker, a light-hearted person and a reveller. And behold, yesterday I was kneeling down nonetheless, feeling moved, and saying the words a little stammering: My dear Redeemer, Lord Jesus!

IV. YEARS OF PROFESSED LIFE

HYMN
Create a clean heart in me, oh, my Lord.
Renew the strong spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from before your face,
Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me,
Support me with the spirit of obedience,
Grant me the joy of your salvation.

I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.
/Gal 5.16.22.23.25./

• Oh, my Lord, my God, how have I become worthy of your goodness? How have I deserved that you have granted me such a beautiful, a deep, a blissful and a meaningful life? That you have led me to such a beautiful world? I want to value highly, with all my energies, my consecrated life; to awaken in myself a deep sense of gratitude for having a part in it. To recognize together with all its difficulties, of how beautiful and how good it is!… Alleluia! Today I can say nothing else, only, may God be blessed. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

• I am short-tempered, vehement, nervous and passionate but still I love you!
I am disobedient, stubborn and defiant yet I love you!
I am restless, hasty and confused but I love you!
I am dark, envious and making comparison although I love you!
How many more weaknesses would I have within me if you did not love me!
I want to be faithful and remain faithful till my death! Faithful through everything!

• It is very difficult to be faithful in small things. One is always more willing to do heroic acts. And this is understandable. In great things, in performing great acts their greatness gives impetus and strength; while we pass by the little things overlooking and not valuing them. How many opportunities we are wasting in this way! How many opportunities there are to be faithful in small things, and how many I am wasting of these opportunities!
For me it is easy to love. It was the Lord who granted me this ability. How much harder it is for those to love who find it to be difficult! I must make good use of my gift to love!… What kind of leaven am I in our community? A Sister is saying that I am good leaven. But in this I have no merit. However, when I make a sour atmosphere in the community, I am to be blamed! It is a double fault for me, because, with my talents, I should leaven it… I want to be present when someone is casting a shadow, I want to spread sunlight among my Sisters. My dear God, it was you who granted me these talents; they have to be made useful in this way, too!
My Christ, please reign within me! Please destroy the narrow walls of my pettiness. Make me to be generous, big-hearted, so that I may be able to love everyone and overlook everything! Amen.
Faith demands one’s whole being! Have a desire for martyrdom! Even if it is not granted to you – because it is God’s special grace – live at least the martyrdom of love!

V. MISSION

HYMN
Set up and go and spread my word,
To my people I am sending you.
Thorn and weeds, blood and complaints –
Till when should I be listening to them?

I am sending you and blessing you,
Go only and spread my word.
Fiery I will make your lips,
And you forehead I will make of diamond,
I will give you to my people as a guard,
And I will grant my Spirit to walk with you.
I am sending you…

This… is the fasting that I wish:
Releasing those bound unjustly,
Untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
Breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
Sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn…
And you shall be like a watered garden, Like a spring whose water never fails.

/Is. 58: 6, 7, 8a-11.b./

• I arrived in Komárom on the 17th. It was a tiring and hard journey. The rain was pouring down. The next day I was teaching already. I teach 26 lessons a week in 13 classes. I would be doing it with joy and I would love it, if it were not such a hard job! My accommodation is very bad. I don’t even have a dresser. It is cold and there is no heating! The piano is being played the whole day next to me, and only a glass door is separating us. Besides, I am so very alone.
Today we had the carnival tea evening for the housemaids. 30 girls turned up. We set three big tables. There was plenty of food. After tea, there was music form the gramophone and the girls were dancing. There was a good atmosphere and they were pretty happy. For me it was exhausting, but I was very glad. God permitting, next year we will invite boys too. It lasted until seven.
I made 16 visits to families, studying their living conditions, and working until 5 o’clock in the afternoon. I went to terrible places! I have never seen such extreme poverty in my life! Yes, poverty in itself can be endured, it does not alienate from God. However, when it becomes so extreme, it kills body and spirit. Poor, poor people!…A Sister of Social Service is to be a torch. She needs to shed light on the way of the people; on the way on which they can reach God. I need to be a burning light!!
I have made a resolution that in advent I will make a double effort to be patient. I want to be good. Good, good with all my heart! Whatever is good is holy! I believe one of the firmest foundations of holiness is goodness!

• …Today a strange thing happened with me. I took out the novel I had completed and re-read it. It made a strange impact on me. I liked it very much! Suddenly I wrapped it up and mailed it.

• May God be with you, beautiful, dear Komárom! I have suffered a lot in you and I love you very much perhaps exactly because of this! Good-bye my dear little children, bare-footed boys, dirty little girls, you poor, beloved companions, good-bye Benedictines, and winding streets! Beautiful, sweet Komárom, God be with you! It is unspeakably hard to leave.
I reached Losonc around three in the afternoon. Everything is lovely and friendly here. I want to serve here God with all my might!

• My dear Sister,
I was going to write you a longer letter to thank you for your gentle words you sent for the celebration of my final vows. Instead of the original (motto) “Alleluia” I chose a new motto: Ecce ego, mitte me! – Behold, here I am, send me!
The Máramaros Alps shed cold down on us. We keep reading 20-25 C degrees below zero. The flat is also quite cold; a finger-wide ice layer covers my window, and it cannot be opened. Sometimes I wrap myself up like a polar bear. Even so there are frostbites on my hands and feet… When I am cold in the church, I offer it up for the priest; I offer especially the cold in my hands for his hands. On the whole, I would like to consecrate my feeling cold, and offer it for those who have no fuel and no warm clothing.
I visited all the district-notaries of the Rahó district. I paid my respects to them and negotiated with them. You can’t imagine what a job it was! One was indifferent, I had to make him enthusiastic; the other was too enthusiastic, I had to slow him down; the third was depressed; the fourth distrustful, the fifth did not even want to see me because he had a lot to do, etc!…Still, I had to win over each one, and thank God, I was successful!
I have been given a new assignment, and soon I will have to leave Técsõ. I am glad, because I will be staying again in the Mother House. But my heart is aching because I have enjoyed it here; I have enjoyed my work, the people and the place… Now I have to acquaint my successor with the job lovingly and with patience. Accept it, oh God! What else do I want after all? Ecce ego, mitte me!

• I am not working for myself. Not even for the Society. I work through an assignment by the superiors of the Society, for God himself. Untiringly! I want to love everything I work with: the machinery, the sheets and paints!
Whenever I get some work to do during the day, I want to remember, it is the Lord who wants me to do it! I want to work in the light of this reality! I realize my responsibility. I have been granted with many talents, I have to do whatever I can in order to multiply them! One needs to love very much; one needs to work very hard!

VI. THE TIME OF RESCUING THE PERSECUTED

HYMN

My light you are, oh Christ,

Oh, come and illuminate my night,
Oh, come, oh, come,
And illuminate my night.
/Taize song/

…Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
/1Pet 4.13-14./

“I believe in God the Father.
The Creator of all things,
The Father of all human beings,
The owner of all that exists
The fountainhead of all power,
The source of all rights,
The author of all legality,
Who bestows rewards and punishment on every human being,
Who governs the entire universe,
Who reigns over all,
In the Lord, who calls everyone to counts.
I believe in our God the Creator
I proclaim that:
A human being, an organization, a State does not own another human being,
A human being is not the property of other human beings, of an organization, or of the State.
Against God’s laws there is no valid legislation.
To deprive human beings of their rights contrary to God’s will, is a sin!
Human beings may not allow what God does not want,
Worldly power may not prohibit what God allows,
It may not order that which God has prohibited!
I believe in God the Creator, the Lord of All!”

(Excerpts written by Margaret Slachta in 1943 to resist Nazi ideology)

• What did Elisha do? First he prayed, than he warmed the dead boy’s body with the warmth of his own. (I too, am called) to pray and work, to impact others “with the warmth of my own body”, that is, with my life and my example! To realize this, I need constantly to awaken the love of Christ in my heart. It is only this love that makes me warm and makes an impact on the outside world.

“1st January 1943
I am writing to you all, who are standing in the doorway of the New Year. To you, who are concerned, thinking unceasingly with tears in your eyes, on your father, your husband or your sons… Oh, how much you would be willing to do, in order to assure protection from Providence for them out in the trenches, against the cold, the rain, the wind, the swamp; against the hardships, the bullets and the cruelty of the enemy … Would you like to receive double help from God for your beloved in their perils? Allow to enter the fate of others into your own heart… Embrace an inmate of a forced labour camp into your heart; one who is excluded from the human community by prevalent common thinking. Take the courage in these deadly serious days to drive out indifference, lovelessness and hatred from your heart! – Have the courage to acknowledge in your innermost being, – in the depth of your heart – that mother and son who are excluded (by society), as a sister and brother! Have courage to receive their pain, and help them to carry their cross. And be courageous to act!…”

(From a letter for the New Year by Margaret Slachta)

• Self-surrender to God. I think that is the secret of everything! A complete and wholly-made self-surrender!… To seek the will of God always and in everything! Today as well… What would you like my Lord, my God? Ecce adsum, ecce ego, mitte me! Ecce ego, suscipe me! Here I am, send me, here I am, accept me!

VII: MARTYRDOM

HYMN
In the Lord I’ll be ever thankful,
In the Lord I will rejoice!
Look to God, do not be afraid,
Lift up your voices, the Lord is near;
Lift up your voices, the Lord is near.
(Taize song)

“I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”
                                                                                                 /Rom 12.1-2./

• My heart is filled with jubilant enthusiasm! I am allowed to follow the inspiration to offer my life, or rather my death for my Sisters! I submitted the request to my superior and to my confessor and I have been granted the permission! In the first intoxication of happiness all the natural fear and uneasiness I experienced, has left me. I have already written the text of the offering. Now I only have to wait for Sister Margaret’s arrival, and then I may offer myself…

“See, my servant shall prosper…
The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity…
My servant shall justify many,
And their guilt he shall bear…
He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.”

/Is 52:13.,53:10a.,11b.,12c./

• As we were sitting in the air-raid shelter, in the dark, and heard a subdued boom, to be honest, our hearts were trembling …we were praying for the city; for the soldiers who protected it, and I felt that I had to pray for the attackers, too! They also have immortal souls, and Christ died for them too. They were not only bombing us, they too, may also crash, or get shot. Perhaps the attacker and the victims will appear before God at the same moment… Perhaps my brief petition will earn them mercy!

“Yes, I hear the whispers of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! Let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine… But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion…”
/Jer 20:10-11a/

• It is not dynamite, chemical acids or bombs that destroy and kill, but the spirit of hatred directing them. Hatred causes bereavement and pain. Love wipes tears and comforts. We want love. We want to create structures based on justice! Let us take a look at the terrible effects of injustice in the life of the world! It erases frontiers; it attacks countries by fire and the sword; it exterminates peoples; it draws up new frontiers; it sets up barriers… It instigates races to rebel against one another! On the other hand, justice acknowledges the right to life of other countries and demolishes the barriers that separate people. It identifies the characteristics of various races as God’s different ideas. Justice says: we are all children of the same Father; we all have alike the right to life! Therefore, joining forces, we must support one another! In the life of a nation, injustice sets nationalities against one another, but justice leads them to stand side-by-side.

From the testimony of a person, rescued by the Sisters of Social Service
I was a girl of twelve and I was living in the ghetto of Budapest with my family. My grandparents had already been dragged away to die, and my father had been carried off to a forced labour camp in Bor. I was left with my mother. I saw horrors all around me, and I was so dreadfully scared, that I wanted to throw my life away. I was taken to the hospital and from there we were rescued to the Mother House of the Sisters of Social Service on Thököly Street. Here we found an island of peace, due to the unreserved and unconditional love of the Sisters. Margaret Slachta was their superior and Sára Salkaházi among them. Once again I was treated as a child, and all my fears disappeared. I sensed even as a child that Sister Margaret had to cope with troubles and responsibilities on a nationwide scale, yet, when she was dealing with me, she was gentleness itself. She gave me the feeling that in that moment it was only me who counted for her. Sister Margaret set up a teaching staff of the harboured professors, and they were teaching us children. In this way, time passed by as a continuation of a normal life, instead of being overwhelmed with bitterness. I was an unbelieving little Jewish girl, yet I was constantly sitting in the chapel, because the presence of God captivated me, and the Sisters lovingly accepted this. It was an unspeakable joy for me when later, in an emergency, Sister Margaret baptized me and my mother. I asked for the name Margaret. Later we left the sisters, but my mother was also dragged away by the arrow-cross soldiers. I returned to the Mother House as an orphan. The Sisters of Social Service promised that they would undertake my upbringing and schooling. My father returned from the forced labour camp and later he also asked for baptism! Today, even my grandchildren live in Catholic marriages and they are raising my great-grandchildren as Catholics. When I am walking past the old Mother House, I can recognize even now, where exactly the old chapel and our room was situated.

From the testimony of a Jewish woman living in Israel.
Sister Sára saved my grandmother and my father during the time of the holocaust. She took my father and my grandmother with herself from Kassa to Lake Balaton, to the house of the Sisters at Jankovich-telep. My father was four at the time. Later he told me how gently Sister Sára treated him. One needs to mature to understand the happenings one grew up with, and what has been recounted of those and earlier times. That is why I am visiting Hungary now. It is overwhelming to know that someone personally gave her life for members of my family. Sára Salkaházi and Margaret Slachta saved the lives of about a thousand Jewish people. It was in my childhood, – as my earliest remembrance – that I got to know the name of Sister Sára as “Sára testvér”. For a long time I thought that “testvér” was her surname. It was only recently that I realized that it means the sister of someone…

“I know your works… You have limited strength, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those… and they will realize that I love you. The victor I will make into a pillar in the temple of my God… On him I will inscribe the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, as well as my new name.”
/Rev 3.8.9.b.12/

HYMN
Ruah, Ruah,
It is not with violence or power
But with the Spirit of God that we live…

Testimonies of eye-witnesses of the events of the 27th of December 1944:
Rumbling steps of soldiers’ boots were to be heard… Suddenly the door sprang open and Sára was standing there with arrow-cross soldiers behind her. When they told her that they were going to carry her away, she reached for a rosary and all she said was “yes”. – Let me go in here for a moment! – and she entered the chapel, went to the front, to the tabernacle. The two arrow-cross soldiers followed her. She knelt down on one knee, and the light of the vigil light shone into her face… I distinctly remember that I was thinking “Oh, my God! Sára is a saint!” The scene startled even the two men. However, hardly a few seconds later, one of the grim-looking arrow-cross men seized her and shouted: “Come on! During the night you will have enough time to pray!” She stood up, but her face radiated such peace, that it seemed like a kind of miracle…
Prior to the ring of shots, at the bank of the Danube, a low-built woman with short black hair turned towards her executioners with some kind of inexplicable tranquillity… then she knelt down, lifting her eyes to the sky, made a big sign of the Cross…

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb… These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “For this reason they stand before God’s throne and worship him day and night in his temple… They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb, who is in the centre of the throne, will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving waters and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
/Rev 7: 9-10.,14b.,15a.,16-17./

They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.
/Rev 22.4-5./

HYMN
THE /E DAY OF PEACE IS DRAWING CLOSE,
LOOK, THE SIGN IS ALREADY SHINING,
THE HEART OF CHRIST EMBRACES TOGETHER
EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH.

St. Stephen’s Basilica in​​ Budapest
17th September 2006
​​
Iz 50, 5 – 9a; Jak 2, 14 – 18; Mk 8, 27 – 35

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. „Hallowed be your name!” – this is the first petition we make in the most important prayer, the ’Our Father,’ the prayer Jesus himself has taught us. The sanctification of God’s name constitutes our utmost desire and request. In some instances the fulfillment of this request may require of us a high price for doing God’s will: our own life. Reading the rest of the Our Father prayer with this in mind, we will understand more clearly what the sanctification of God’s name implies. „Your kingdom come!” – meaning that God’s reign has to come into our lives; God’s will has to become visible in the life of the individuals and of the community both in this world and in the one to come. The one who loves me will keep my commandments, says Jesus. When in the Our Father we pray that God’s will be done, we make a big commitment: namely that we ourselves will do everything to follow God’s will.

In the letter of the apostle James we have just read: „What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works? …faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Our Christian faith urges us to put the love of our neighbor into practice. This love may require work, charity, generous giving – whether of goods, or of our attention, or care. It may also require what we used to refer to as mortification; i.e. to freely give up something we would like to do, something we would consider delightful, useful, entertaining, or even necessary for ourselves.

But sometimes following God’s will would also bring suffering. Today we read in Isaiah: „The Lord has opened my ears and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard. My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” The words of the gospel are meant in this dramatic context. Free from his contemporaries’ expectations, Jesus announces who he really is. And we are left with the task to learn from him. We have to accept and learn his way and lead our lives accordingly. If we say that we have accepted him, that we too, are his disciples, then we can no longer follow the way we think it is his. Rather we have to contemplate the person of Jesus, pondering over and over what his way is, and seeking what he really is asking of us. And we might find it not so very attractive; it might not be the way we would have liked to choose for ourselves. It may turn out to be more difficult than what we had expected; however, if we recognize that this is the way he calls us to follow, we would be able to persevere on it with joy. Jesus says: „Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me! For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

2. Today at this mass, according to the decree of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI we proclaim Sára Salkaházi, Sister of Social Service blessed; and as we do so, in her person we gain an example as well as an intercessor.

In her we have an example of witnessing for Christ – for this is the original meaning of Christian martyrdom. This witnessing is at the same time sanctifying God’s name; it becomes manifest in the many deeds of her life, but first and foremost, and in the strict sense of the word it is accomplished in the death she accepts for her faith in and faithfulness to Christ. Sára Salkaházi was an intelligent and talented woman, open minded and seeking for deeper meanings. She obtained a degree in education and she tried her talents in journalism, in literature and politics. She felt a special call to dedicate her life to the service of those in need. Therefore she embraced the call to religious life and entered the Society of the Sisters of Social Service, a community that represented the most modern form of consecrated life in the 20s and 30s. As a journalist and community organizer she intended to help the poorest of the poor; besides organizing soup kitchens, she dedicated special attention to the dignity of women, empathizing with the difficulties they had to face. Sr. Sara’s Christian vision recognized how the burdens of work, family and society were weighing down working class women who raised their children in poverty. Sr. Sara also dedicated herself to the education of young women; she founded the Catholic Women’s movement. She took her first vows in 1930 but she was allowed to final vows only ten years later. She also felt a call to mission, not only to the people who were far from God, but also to the ones of faraway countries. Thus she accepted the invitation to go to Brazil. This however, could never materialize. The needs and sufferings of her own country demanded more and more of her attention. She worked in many different regions, including Sub-Carpathia with its extremely difficult circumstances.

Meanwhile she felt a deepening desire to offer her life as a sacrifice to God. She made this offering in 1943 in a prayer, the text of which we still have today. She wanted to offer herself as the sacrifice of the Society in case persecution of the Church, of the Society and of the Sisters may come to pass. Such a life offering is a very dramatic moment of the soul in its relationship with God. We can see in the example of many saints that God was personally involved in their lives; God listens to us and if it is in accordance with his love and wisdom, he grants what we ask for and accepts our offerings. Her love for Christ urged Sr. Sara to welcome and shelter those who were persecuted for their political views or because they were Jewish. Had she done this out of simple empathy, it would still deserve our respect. She however, did so following what Christ taught to be the most important commandment in the law: “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second commandment is similar: love your neighbor as yourself!” She was not a lone follower of this love. Along with other remarkable people like Blessed Vilmos Apor, Cardinal Mindszenty, and above all with her superior, Sr. Margit Slachta and the other Sisters of Social Service she took the risk of protecting the persecuted. Many other houses of the Society of the Sisters of Social Service served as hiding places. In their house in Kolozsvar/Cluj five persecuted women were dressed into the sisters’ uniform and in the mother house Sr. Margit Slachta was sheltering many people, even men who often had to hide in the attic or in closets. These were days of fear; fear that evoked long cries in those who survived even decades later. And they were days of fear for the risk taking sisters as well. Sr. Sara and her sisters were not among the persecuted, but their activities were filled with dangers. That is why Sr. Sara was worried for the sisters and this might have been part of the reasons why she had offered her life for the Society. She might also have considered the news that came from the Soviet Union about the torture and massacre of priests and religious.

The Decree of the Holy See says rightly about Sr. Sara that she was killed as Christ’s faithful disciple: she witnessed to her faith with her life. When on December 27, 1944 she was shot into the Danube along with the catechist, Vilma Bernovits and the people she was hiding in the home at Bokreta Street, Sr. Sara welcomed the bullets of her executioners with the sign of the cross she had traced solemnly on herself. She used to instruct young women not to make the sign of the cross hurriedly or sluggishly; rather they should put on the crucified Christ when they make the sign of the cross, identifying with the One, of whom this sign is supposed to remind them.

3. Sara Salkahazi’s witness and martyrdom has a timely message for us today. Its message is not a sensational one, nor is it a headline appealing to the eyes. It is a more profound message revealing the roots of our created humanity. When on that mundane, grey and slushy winter evening death took Sr. Sara away, silence fell over her memory. Her place was left empty. The news was whispered around that she too, was shot into the Danube. First among her sisters and later among others the realization slowly took shape: she then is a martyr! History went on and another era followed with other kinds of fear. There was no possibility to start a beatification process from Hungary. However, more and more evidence surfaced from the silence, and words of gratitude and appreciation followed, becoming stronger and stronger. Her name appeared on the list of the righteous ones and in 1996 the process of her beatification was started in the Esztergom-Budapest diocese. We initiated her beatification because even after fifty years her memory lived on and we felt it timely to gain in her person someone whose intercessions we can ask for and someone whose authentic example we can follow. Her example is not one that comes to us from the legends of the distant past or from the ranks of a royal or aristocratic family. She is close to us, and her example is within our reach. She is someone of modest circumstances, who lived through the storms of the 20th century Hungarian history and she gave us an example of the feminine way to holiness.

We need Sr. Sara’s example especially in this jubilee year. We have been praying for the spiritual renewal of our nation in the spirit of penance and reconciliation. Such renewal is only possible in truth, justice, and love, and in a spirit that respects the human person in the weak and the poor, and recognizes human dignity as the greatest value of human society. Renewal and reconciliation is needed not just within our society but among all peoples here in Central Europe as well as throughout the whole world. Our Catholic faith is our guide and resource. If we follow Christ unreservedly, our lives will enrich our neighbors, our nation and the entire world. In the saints the face of Christ is shining on us in the many different life situations and in all the events of the history. Men, women, young and old, children of all races and nations can carry the face of Christ. And Christ’s presence brings peace, hope and joy to the world; the promise and the token of eternal life and glory.

Our Lady of Hungary, pray for us! Blessed martyr Sára Salkaházi, pray for us! Our Heavenly Father, hallowed be your name! Amen.

​St. Elizabeth Cathedral in Kosice
24th November 2006

We remember Blessed Sára Salkaházi here, in her native city, Kosice, which was very important for her. She was born in this city on May 11, 1899. Her mother desired to give to her talented child the very best education, and enrolled her in the school of the Ursuline Sisters. Sára Salkaházi loved with great devotion Rákóczi, the legendary prince and leader for freedom, whose remains rest in this cathedral. A cathedral, dedicated to that Saint Elizabeth, whose 800th anniversary of birth we celebrate this year. Blessed Sara Salkaházi was still a student when she wrote her first article, published in the “Evening News” the best paper in the city. The readers of the article did not guess that its author is a young girl, less than 20 years old.

As a teacher, a book-binding apprentice, and later assistant, Sara is faced in this city with social problems; she searches for the deeper connections, for the real roots of poverty and underdevelopment; she becomes sensitive to social problems here. In this city she comes to learn about the work of the Sisters of Social Service.

Kosice in the life of Blessed Sara is a city of passionate search. Where does this passion come from? Perhaps from the “dearest Momi” how she calls her mother, who after the death of her husband directs alone the Hotel Schalkhaz, and supports her children all by herself. It is a fact, when Sara lives already in Budapest she rejects some critics’ negative opinion about Kosice with a bristling indignation. “What does this good critic know, what does it means Kosice? Only the long-time residents of Kosice know this… The true residents are forever in love with this city!”

This girl, with her bristling consciousness of Kosice can teach us much!

1. Blessed Sister Sara can teach us freedom from false ideologies.

The decision to fight all her life against poverty, misery and social injustice, is born within her in Kosice. She studies a course in social welfare. This leads her to the Sisters of Social Service.

When Hitler was victorious during the first years of the war, a campaign was started in Hungary to “Germanize” the population, insisting: “Let us be proud of belonging to the victorious German people! Let us claim again the original German family name!” Sister Sara rejects the attraction of this ideology. An inscription in the register of Kosice states: On the 10th of March 1943 Schalkház Sára changed her name to (a Hungarian) Salkaházi.

In 1936 she writes in her diary: “Have a desire for martyrdom; if, out of God’s special love you would not get it, at least live the martyrdom of sainthood!”

After the German invasion, Blessed Sister Sara was responsible for the Working-Women’s home on Bokreta Street. Its doors were opened by the Society before the persecuted. With the direction of their foundress, Margit Slachta, the sisters were ready to this even at the price of risking their lives.

Cardinal Péter Erdő during the Mass of beatification stated: “a beatification is the expression of the Church’s opinion, that in those traumatic times hers was the correct way of action. It is also a statement of direction: in conflict situations and in everyday life we need to seek what is the will of Jesus Christ for our life.”

Blessed Sister Sara, the most attractive hero of the history of the 20th century, had to struggle with dictatorship even after her death. It is a special grimace of our history that the heroic example of Sara Salkaházi, – who was committed to justice and consciously opposed Nazism, – was silenced by the atheistic powers, together with many other persons and institutions, who risked saving Jews and others who were persecuted. The one-party state, which claimed to be socialist, found the social orientation of Catholicism to be too uncomfortable. For their goals a conservative church, barricaded from modern life was more acceptable. Even though the process of beatification could not be initiated during the decades of the “people’s democracy”, her veneration did not falter. Ideologies and dictatorships changed, but the heroic example of Blessed Sister Sara became more and more attractive.

The twentieth century was the century of ideologies. The task of the 21st century’s Christianity is to brake out from the ideologies’ prison, as Blessed Sara did, and to cling faithfully to Christ, who is the truth.

2. Blessed Sister Sara calls to reconciliation between the nations.

Reconciliation is a burning necessity between nationalities within society, and between nations! Margaret Slachta, the foundresss of the Society of the Sisters of Social service was once questioned: “Why do you protect Jews? I want Christians to understand what their obligations are coming from religion; Christ taught to love the neighbor without distinction; from this flow the protection of the neighbor’s rights, as is stated in the Ten Commandments.” Sara Salkahazi understood the intention of her foundress. In 1944, when press and radio were full with anti-Semitic campaign, and when the most dangerous thing was to be seen in the company of Jewish persons, Sister Sara not only is seen in the company of her persecuted compatriots marked with a yellow-star, but as it was stated, shared her home with them.

For her heroic stance toward Judaism the Jerusalem institute of Jad Vasem admitted her among the “righteous of the world” in 1972.

Blessed Sara is open not only toward Judaism. She is in solidarity with people living in far-away continents; in solidarity with Hungarians who live far away from each other. She volunteers in 1937 for missionary work in Brazil, and her superiors accept it. However, because she was not a Hungarian citizen, she could not leave for Latin-America. During her vowed life she served at times at the base of the North-eastern region of the Carpathian Mountains, or in Komarno; at other times in Budapest. She supervises soup-kitchen for children; supervises old-folks home; she visits families, organizes study courses for workers; gives lectures; directs a catholic store; publishes a newspaper. She helps wherever, and in whatever manner she can.

We walk in the footsteps of Blessed Sara, the path of reconciliation, when we at this hour celebrate together, and remember the action of the Slovak and Hungarian Bishops’ Conferences, mutually asking forgiveness for the sins committed against each-other’s people. This action, according to Cardinal Erdő, is more than simply “asking forgiveness.” Between the two Bishop’s Conferences this is a witness to faith and a commitment to common values.”

A deepened Christian faith opens up persons to others; it enables them to bear witness to shared faith and mutual values. Common humanity and love are able to bind nations together! The statement is true, that great examples of Christianity cannot be locked in within the borders of one nation alone!

3. The persistent search of Blessed Sara calls us to a struggle.

On the 27th of December, 1944 the Arrow-Cross soldiers surrounded the Bokreta St. house of the Sisters of Social Service, which was under the direction of Sister Sara. They were searching for Jews. They took into custody 5 suspected persons. Sister Sara was not at home at this moment. She arrived home at the end of the search. She could have avoided arrest, but did not do it. She entered the house, trying to protect her co-workers and the harbored. She too, was taken away with them. According to witnesses they were undressed; naked they were shot into the Danube. Before the execution Sara Salkaházi turned, and made the sign of the cross. According to a recollection, the bullets hit her during this act.

During the beatification the last section of Sister Sara’s life is brought into focus. However, the last station of her life was preceded by a consciously chosen preparation.

“Alleluia! Ecce ego, mitte me!” “Here I am, send me” was the motto chosen for her vowed life in 1940.

Send me! Se searched for a long time, where to go. At the age of 29 she starts her novitiate. This was a difficult change in her life. It is not by accident that she writes in 1930 into her diary: “Two years ago I was a smoker, a carousing, a gypsy-music loving, and thoughtless person.” From her diary we can follow her transformation, while she dedicates all her gifts and energies to Christ service. “Do I want to become free? I do, I want, my Christ! Yes! I place into your hands, into the palm of your hands my heart! Free me! Make me completely free, that I may be completely yours” – she writes.

In 1943 she consciously offers her life, with the permission of her superiors, in order to protect the ill, the weak and the elderly: “My most merciful Father! You created me out of great love, and from your compassionate goodness you adopted me to be your child…You gave me, unworthy as I am, the grace of vocation and the Society… I offer myself today in gratitude for my Sisters as a victim of our Society. Accept my death with all its pain as a ransom for the life of the Sisters, especially for the elderly, the ill and the weak.”

Was it and inspiration? Was it a premonition? Sister Sara became the only victim of the Society during Word War II.

A saint, – according to a wisdom saying – is an ordinary person. But her ordinary life is formed by much harder reality than the ordinary. Thus became Sara Salkaházi, a native of Kosice, a saint; on such a path can we, ordinary persons, also become saints.

In conclusion I quote from the homily of Cardinal Erdő, preached at the beatification Mass. “We need the example of Sister Sara in a particular way during this year of jubilee. We are praying for the renewal of our nation with atonement and reconciliation. We pray for a renewal which is possible only in the light of truth, of justice and love. We pray for a spirituality which recognizes in the weakest, and in the poorest the human being, who, after all is the greatest treasure in all societies, and at all times. There is a burning need for such renewal and reconciliation within our society; among the nations in the Carpathian basin, and in the whole world.” Amen.