"I brought love here" - this is the title of the Mindszentyneum exhibition in Zalaegerszeg, which presents the life journey of Cardinal József Mindszenty, Prince-Primate, Archbishop of Esztergom. The exhibition shows the man who devoted his whole life to what he believed in, and whose struggles bear witness to the values of the Christ-centered community.
Also the Mindszentyneum pilgrimage site, which speaks of a special person in such a way that we can identify with him by getting to know him.
The life journey exhibition of Cardinal József Mindszenty opened in Zalaegerszeg in autumn 2022. The exhibition was created as a result of a work process lasting seven years, in which a historian, an art historian, an architect and an interior designer worked together. The city is the first parish station of József Mindszenty's priestly ministry; spent twenty-five years here. The young priest became a pastor in Zalaegerszeg. As a parish priest, he was strict with himself and others. His life therefore left a double mark on the community: his service was appreciated, as he did a lot for the city and the parish, and at the same time, the memory of his strictness was preserved. The fact that, during communism, extremely intensive propaganda was carried out to denigrate him in the city also played a role in his judgment.
Gergely Kovács, representative of the Mindszenty Foundation, curator of the József Mindszenty life journey exhibition, puts it this way:
"We didn't want to carve a flawless, perfect figure out of Mindszenty.
You cannot be born a saint, you can only become a saint. Therefore, our goal was to show as closely as possible how József Mindszenty lived his life.
We wanted to create the impression that he was telling a story, that he was showing us his life's journey, but at the same time we also tried to see his personality development, the evolution of his thinking, and the changes in his behavior. We tried to present József Mindszenty, who became a saint and a hero, in his reality."
The five-hundred-square-meter exhibition deals with the life journey in four sections, and the fifth section presents the veneration and spiritual heritage of the cardinal. We can see an exhibition rich in symbols, which plays with colors and the expressive power of light and shadow. Thanks to individual donors, selected memorabilia was also placed in the exhibition space. The selected texts are to the point, multimedia content is emphasized, and interior design and installation tools, modern technical solutions create an atmosphere and visuals that really appeal to people.
The exhibition does not prioritize textual information.
First of all, it wants to provide experiences that can be experienced, and the artistic installations with spiritual content, appearing at five points, which are related to the themes of the homeland, life's vocation, life's sacrifice, emigration service and heavenly birth, are decisive in this respect.
"They give us a different point of view, they speak to us, and if we let them, they help us open our souls. They evoke important life situations, decisions, commitments, joys and sacrifices"
– Gergely Kovács presents the concept.
The first part of the exhibition, entitled The Vocation of Life, presents the cardinal's childhood years, his choice of profession and his work as a parish priest in Zalaegerszeg for a quarter of a century. His intimate relationship with his parental home and his mother is evoked by a photograph, a headscarf, and the prayer book, dear to the boy. The artistic installation, the symbolic baptismal font made from the soil of the garden of the parents' house, makes you think about baptism, the spiritual rebirth of a person in Christ, while the Litany of All Saints and the Litany of Loreto, taken from the ethnographic collection from Mindszenty's homeland, are quietly heard.
Pictures, film newsreels, and newspaper articles report on József Mindszenty's service as a parish priest.
There is hardly a family that I did not know, a child that I did not look into the eyes of, a family cross that I did not try to alleviate," reads the testimony of the former parish priest.
We can get to know the priest who baptizes, swears, confesses, sacrifices and buries, and we get an idea of his social role, the founding of social, cultural, educational associations, communities, and institutions. We can also see the builder's activity that still defines the cityscape today. We can witness a quarter of a century in which religious life flourished and communities were born. A rich picture wall evokes this multifaceted service, and on an advertising column we can also read the newspaper published by Mindszenty.
The second unit of the exhibition is about the activities of the archpriest: it guides you through the episcopal and archbishopric periods with the help of images, contemporary film newsreels, and tangible memories. We can get to know the bishop of Veszprém, who served his "church and country" in the age of arrows and during the German occupation, immersed in the task of church visits and church governance, even from prison. We can then take a look into the life of the Archbishop of Esztergom, who already felt at the time of his appointment that he would have to accept martyrdom with this task. Alongside the high priest, we also see the man who lives a simple life and tirelessly searches for ways to contribute to the spiritual renewal of Hungarians. The exhibition presents the revival of church life as a result of Mindszenty's activities, as well as the growing anti-church and persecution. This is the period between October 1945 and December 1948, when the head pastor's room for maneuver becomes increasingly narrow. As we get closer to his arrest, the room gets narrower and less light.
Between the wall of hatred and blessing, we reach the third section of the exhibition, which presents the sacrifice of life. We arrive at a circular space. József Mindszenty stands in front of us and speaks in a low voice from an archive recording: "Lord, give me peace these days. I asked for this peace for my Church, whose love I brought here." A poignant moment. These are the sentences that the cardinal said as the right of the last word in his conception trial. A plaster cast of Tibor Rieger's statue of the Hermits of Mary stands in the circular space, which was inspired by the Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. This is the symbolic space of Cardinal Mindszenty's calvary and clothing as Christ, which opens upwards and is connected to the Mindszentyneum's other exhibition space, which presents the communist persecution of the church. On the outer side of the shining golden wall forming a circle, there are images of the persecuted churchmen and laymen: they surround the cardinal in the middle in a white robe, the chief pastor, who stands in the community of three hundred and twenty martyrs.
From the circular corridor of the symbolic church, we can enter the space evoking the trial of the showcase trial. We can follow the events taking place here and the world's reactions on archival footage. Moving on, a prison cell reminds of the time spent in captivity.
The fourth stage of his life's journey begins with Mindszenty's release in 1956. In this unit of the exhibition, among the cardinal's most personal items, we can see his winter coat, a 1956 flag from his legacy, and his radio speeches recall historical events. The next space tells about the time spent at the American embassy, followed by the last years of the cardinal's life, the active pastoral period between 1972 and 1975, which was spent in the service of Hungarian communities abroad. The artistic installation forms an arbor in this semicircular room, referring to the allegorical tree that Cardinal Mindszenty spoke about several times:
"Everyone is a Hungarian leaf from a common Hungarian tree."
And the last installation of the exhibition calls for silence: a symbolic tomb chapel, in which the thanksgiving songs of today's Zalaegerszeg faithful are heard. It is meant to show the empty tomb of Christ and the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Cardinal Mindszenty who lives with us. This is how the journey of life spent in the service of Christ, the Church and the Hungarian people is fulfilled.
Mindszentyneum wants to teach and has a message for today. It invites the visitor to experience what a life based on God is like and its communal effect that enriches our present.
As Gergely Kovács put it: The exhibition directs our attention to a pastor blessed with a sense of mission, who throughout his life was characterized by decisive choices of values, taking Christianity as a religion of love seriously, a deeply experienced relationship with God and a responsible attitude. Mindszenty always clearly recognized what was against God and man in the midst of inhumanities and injustices during the Arrow-Nazi and communist autocracy. During his life's journey, he saw more and more clearly the man behind things, and in his own life the love and goodness of the saving God, which can be reciprocated and passed on to our communities.
Featured image: Mindszentyneum
