A Moment of Eternity

By Éva Nyáry

The enamel pictures of the Hungarian Saint Crown mark the pick of the successful painter's carrier of Éva Nyáry. Her uncle, Ernest Nyáry, Archbishop of Baghdad inspired the paintings of equal size, representing the pictures decorating the crown of our first king, Saint Stephan's, presented with national and international recognition to the inter

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956896985

Book preview

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

Recommendation

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

Recommendation

Recommendation

Recommendation

Summary

Abstract

Ernest Nyáry earl, Carmelite monk, Friary leader

Mission leader in Baghdad, Latin Archbishop

The religion related geographical changes of Christianity

Geographical bridge

Memorials

Literature used

The Hungarian Archbishop of Baghdad

Audience with Pope Paul VI

Nomination for Nobel Prize

The newest author’s work of Éva Nyáry - a biographical novel, A Moment of Eternity – Ernest Nyáry’s life, Bishop of Baghdad

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

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).

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.

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 is French, for the Roman Catholic archbishop of Iraq is French citizen since 1848.

Count Ernest Károly Albert Nyáry, that is, Father Ernest, was born in the ancient Nyáry family of Bedegh and Berencs. His father, Count Nyáry Károly József-Kálmán-Ernest (Charles Joseph-Coloman-Ernest Nyáry), was born on July 20, 1880, in Kosztyán (Koštany nad Turcom, Turiec County, Slovakia) (†1935). He studied law, like his ascendants. His father transferred the estate and castle of Túrócszentpéter (Turčiansky Peter) to Charles Nyáry when he reached the age of maturity. While his grandfather, a retired judge of the district court and a perennial member of the upper house was alive, he has managed the estates: Koštany nad Turcom, Turčiansky Peter, Nagybucsány (Bučany), and Zsitvaújfalu (Nová Ves nad Žitavou).

Nyáry Charles was a really handsome man; the ladies adored him. Later he became a good father. He was a notoriously good hunter, a racehorse expert, an eminent connoisseur, and a friendly, generous host for his guests. Illustrious influential landlords, nobles, and aristocrats arriving from abroad turned up in the Nyárys’ palaces (the Castle of Bratislava belonged to them at this time) and castles of the countryside. In addition to a major trophy and paintings gallery, Charles Nyáry has gathered an important collection of exotic pieces of works of art, collected by him, as well as an impressive library. He was a well-known good hunter. He used to receive the close relatives in his study, where they could discuss the current political news and the associated necessary tasks in comfortable leather armchairs accompanied with some brandy. We, the kids, all looked at Dad as somebody who had surpassed everyone in elegance, sports, and cultural knowledge, recalled Blanka, Charles Nyáry’s youngest daughter. My father was a collector, thus my environment was like a museum.

In addition to a major trophy and paintings gallery, Charles Nyáry had got an impressive library. He added exotic pieces of works to his collection of arts. His flat was decorated by valuable sculptures of Africa. He was especially proud of a carving standing on a separate plinth at an outstanding place in the saloon of the castle. I brought it from Borneo—pointed it out—this piece is the pride of Dad’s collection, do compliment him! whispered Esther from time to time to a guest. Esther was Ernest’s sister, who has inherited, on the top of her parents’ intellectual abilities, her mother’s beauty.

Count Nyáry Charles has managed the Nyáry estates of counties Bars, Nyitra, and Bratislava. He became owner of the palace of Bratislava, maybe the most beautiful baroque palace of the town. He married the only nineteen-year-old striking beauty, baroness of Galanta, Fekete Lenke-Magdalena-Maria-Agnes-Elisabeth (1885–1961) in Bratislava on November 16, 1904. Little Mum was she called by