A Moment from Eternity: Life of Ernest Nyáry, Archbishop of Baghdad

By Eva Nyary

The enamel pictures of the Hungarian Saint
Crown mark the pick of the successful painters
carrier of va Nyry. Her uncle, Ernest Nyry,
Archbishop of Baghdad inspired the paintings of
equal size, representing the pictures decorating
the crown of our first king, Saint Stephans, presented
with national and international recognition
to the interested public. The artist published
the birth of the art pieces and the spirit and history
of the crown in a work published with the
similar title in 2002. She took the pen in 2006
and composed her following book entitled The
Ancient Hungarian decorative art.
Mgr. Ernest Nyry, Carmelite monk, archbishop
of the Catholic Latin mission of Baghdad,
a member of the Saint Congregation
of the Oriental Churches, awarded with
the French Legion of Honor, approaching the age of 80 came to see his disciples,
parents and friends living in Hungary for the last time, and than he transmitted
his legacy in full to his brother Josephs daughter, confiding her to preserve and
manage it.
Her father told many stories to va Nyry about the romantic priests carrier
in her childhood. The several long meeting with him in the eighties meant her
extraordinary impressions. The recorded conversations, the writings published
about the noble thinking, sainted monk, matured the conception to share her impressions
with readers. When she was handed over his diaries, texts, correspondence,
photos and recorded memories, having his uncles complete confidence, she
has already felt as an obligation to work this fantastic treasury up.
Ernest Nyrys history of lifewho was born in an ancient Hungarian noble
family in Turcansky Peter, today Slovakia in 1906, evolved in the priests vocation,
bridging world wars and continentsserved as a lesson about faith, tolerance,
decisions made in critical moments, and especially about humanity.
va Nyrys newest work follows her uncles fantastic life relying on the documents
at her disposal, many original quotations, and contemporary descriptions
with historic fidelity. The unordinary story is completed by the archive photos of
the legacy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499038453

Eva Nyary

Le sommet de la carrière réussie de peintre de plusieurs décennies d’Éva Nyáry se réalise dans son livre „ Les images d’émail de la Sainte couronne hongroise. Les peintures de taille égale des images décorant la couronne de notre premier roi, Saint Etienne, à l’inspiration de son oncle, Ernest Nyáry Archevêque de Bagdad ont été présentées au public intéressé à partir des années quantre-vingt dix avec grande reconnaissance nationale et internationale. L’artiste a publié l’histoire de la naissance et de la spiritualité de la couronne dans son livre publié avec le même titre en 2002. Elle a pris le stylo en 2006 pour composer son livre suivant intitulé «Ancienne culture décorative hongroise» Mgr. Ernest Nyáry, moine carmélite de la mission carmélite de Bagdad, archevêque de la mission catholique latin de Bagdad, membre de la Sainte Congrégation des Eglises Orientales, décoré de la Légion d’Honneur française, à l’approche de ses 80 ans est venu voir ses fidèles, parents et amis vivant en Hongrie pour une dernière fois. C’est alors qu’il a transmis son legs à la fille de son frère Joseph, lui confiant la garde et la gestion. Le père d’ Éva Nyáry lui parlait souvent dans son enfance de la carrière de prêtre aventoureuse de son oncle. Les rencontres répétées avec son oncle lui signifiaient d’expériences extraordinaires dans les années quatre-vingt. Les conversations enregistrées, les écrits parus du moine aux idées nobles, à la vie sainte allaient matûrant l’idée de partager ces impressions avec d’autrui. Quand elle a reçu fort de la confiance complète de son oncle ses journaux, écrits, correspondance, photos et souvenirs auditifs entegistrés par magnétophone, elle a considéré comme devoir l’élaboration de ce trésor fantastique. La vie d’Ernest Nyáry né dans une famille anccienne hongroise en 1906 à Turcansky Peter (Slovaquie) évoluée en la vocation de prêtre, enjambant guerres mondiales, continents sert de moral de la foi, de la tolérance, de décisions prises aux moments critiques, et surtout de l’humanité. Le travail d’écrivain le plus récent d’Éva Nyáry s’appuie sur les documents à disposition, suit avec des écrits et documents contemporains, avec beaucoup de citations et fidèlité historique la vie fantastique de son oncle. Les enregistrements archives complètent cette histoire hors du commun.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Eva Nyary.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014911092

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-3846-0

                Softcover      978-1-4990-3847-7

                eBook           978-1-4990-3845-3

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Rev. date: 06/19/2014

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Contents

Foreword

Visiting Card and Coat of Arms

The Family, the Background

Beginning of His Schooling

The Consequences of World War I

Again in School Desk, Career

Paris: Awakening of the Priestly Vocation

Preparation for God’s Service

The First Saint Masses of the Young Friar

Return to France: The German Occupation

Another Shock—World War II

The Germans Occupy France

The Savior

Ernest Nyáry and the Holocaust in Hungary

Arrival to the Capital of Iraq, Baghdad

Head of the Latin Archdiocese of Baghdad

Getting to Know Baghdad: The First Impressions

The Archbishop of Baghdad for the Christians

For the Reform of Liturgy

József Mindszenty: Meetings with the Prince Primate, Visits to the Vatican and the Fatherland

Farewell to Holy Office

Farewell to the Fatherland

Avon—the End of Life

The Carmelite Order

The Author’s Epilogue

In the Possession of the Esterházy Family

The Esterházy Family

Semjén Zsolt’s Recommending Lines to the Tome Introducing Us to the Life and Work of Ernest Nyáry, Carmelite Monk, the Onetime Archbishop of Baghdad

Appendix

Recommendation

Recommendation Lines to the Book that Introduces the Life of Ernest Nyáry, the Archbishop of Baghdad

Happy Those Are, Who Have Such a Relative…

Recommendation

Nobility

Lourdes

In the Name of God, Service to Mankind

Foreword

Archbishop Ernő Nyáry, OCD

The memory of the late Archbishop Ernest Nyáry, OCD, really deserves the tribute given by this book lovingly written by his niece Countess Éva Nyáry.

Ernest Nyáry has been Latin Archbishop of Baghdad between 1972 and 1983, a period during which he was an apostle for all Christians in the Iraqi capital, not limiting his ministry to the Latin faithful, but taking care also of those of Eastern Churches, especially for the poor people, the displaced and refugees, and even not only for Christian ones.

He had already given proof of his real charity and Christian love when he was in France, in the Carmelite convent of Avon, of which he has been the prior during World War II, and he saved the life of several persecuted Jews and of other ones.

Archbishop Ernest said that the wars are the proof of the absence of God in our societies: The mankind will never make a living and find himself without God and moral order.

I hope this Hungarian Carmelite’s example could help today’s Muslim, Christian, and other Iraqis to find a peaceful life together in their motherland, and could be a contribution to the badly needed peace in the whole Middle East. Let us pray for that.

His Beatitude

GREGORIOS III

Patriarch Greek Melkite Catholic of Antioch and the entire East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

Gregorios%20III.jpg

Visiting Card and Coat of Arms

We can read on the visiting card: Mgr. Ernest Nyáry, Archevèque Latin de Baghdad. There are above his shield fields, chapters of his life in heraldic bearings, a green archbishop’s hat, the divided shield clamped by four rows of hanging tassels. At the left side of the shield, a mountain (the Golgotha) is situated, with a crucifix on the top, the symbol of the Carmelite order. The archbishop spent half of his life in the mendicant Carmelite order—Ordo Beate Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo—receiving the regula in 1226, mendicant order offered to the Virgin. The right side of the shield is divided into several parts: on the bottom, a silver river (the Danube), in green field above, in blue field there is the castle of Bratislava (Pressburg), reminding the world of his youth. There are above the Danube and the Castle of Bratislava again in green field, three silver crescent moons, referring to the territory of his ecclesiastic activities, the country of Muslims. On the top is a silver rose in a red square, the rosa mistica, the rose of secret sense. Under the shield, on writing tape, appears Ernest Nyáry’s archiepiscopal motto, a sentence from Saint Paul’s letter of to the Romans (12:16): Non alta sapientes, sed humilibus consentientes (not minding high things, but consenting to the humble). Other interpretations of the archbishop’s motto are also known in the Nyáry family (e.g., Don’t be ambitious, don’t long to the heights, for you will find joy in the small things, or simply and shortly, Find your joy in what is humble).

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The Family, the Background

I have come to know father Ernest, my uncle, as a broad-minded person, however modest, excellent in conversation, and good-humored. The members of his family, the Nyáry, lived scattered in the world as a result of World War II, while his younger brother and family lived in Budapest.

It wasn’t possible for him to come home for thirty years. He was able come home for the first time to Budapest in 1962. The Hungarian capital appeared to be too big; he found it quite gray, where people don’t do anything else, just run from a place to another. Even the speech became accelerated as a result of the rapid flow of life. He used to say, I had to concentrate for understanding the formerly slow, rhythmic speech.

However, he didn’t forget his mother tongue, the Hungarian. He was an enthusiastic reader of Sándor Petőfi’s and János Arany’s poetry that he assessed as top values of the world of poetry. He lived in the belief that Petőfi’s and Arany’s works twit people to the fatherland, the cradle, and the earth. He was seized with homesickness while reading these poems, although he was busy with the everyday administrative work and ecclesiastic service—he officiated, baptized, conducted confirmation ceremonies, married, buried, and ordained, etc. His homesickness grew with age, became almost intolerable from time to time.

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Crypt and sepulchral chapel of the Nyáry in Kosut (On the picture

Éva Nyáry and baron Ferenc Fekete, Esther Nyáry’s son)

He could visit his fatherland, the Upper Hungary (nowadays Slovakia), since the late 1970s, naturally with the written authorization of the competent authority. He was tolerated as a visitor, a tourist at her sister’s place of residence in Kossuth (Košuty). He could even celebrate a Mass in the parish church, behind closed doors by exclusion of the believers. He was prohibited to preach, confess, and sing ecclesiastic songs; he could celebrate silent Mass for the family members. He could also celebrate masses at the altar of the chapel situated in the garden of the Nyárys’ mansion, where his relatives were buried, of course in strictly closed circle, too.

My father told me a lot in my childhood in the fifties about the life and childhood experience of my parents and their siblings, including about their brother Ernest, who happened to live as a Christian archbishop in Baghdad. He told me about his sacerdotal vocation, love for his profession, courage, and adventurous, almost fairy-tale-like career. My uncle who got far away saved his language and spoke a beautiful Hungarian and was glad to answer my pelting questions.

Once I asked how I could be a descendant of a Hungarian historical family, a Carmelite friar archbishop of Baghdad. He replied, smiling, "Because he