His religious colleagues, friends, students, fellow teachers and admirers accompanied István Jelenits in Budapest, in the Fiumei út cemetery on Tuesday. The Széchenyi Prize-winning theologian, retired high school, college and university teacher, awarded with the Hungarian Corvin chain, was laid to rest in the tomb of the Piarist order.
In his farewell speech, the President of the Republic Tamás Sulyok thanked István Jelenits "on behalf of Hungary" "spirituality armed with an open heart and confident hope that radiated from him" .
The head of state highlighted István Jelenits' compassionate attentiveness, calm serenity and consciously accepted intellectual destiny, which he saved even during the forty years of adversity of church persecution and the atrophy of the bourgeois middle class.
Piarist provincial chief Viktor Zsódi answered the question of the meaning of life with the words of István Jelenits, which inevitably arises in a person at the time of farewell: "The meaning of a person's life is to realize the greatness of the world, the value of existence, and to express his joy".
István Jelenits died on September 26 in the 92nd year of his life, the 70th year of his monastic life, and the 65th year of his priesthood.
MTI
Cover photo: The funeral of István Jelenits, a Piarist monk and retired teacher who died at the age of 91, in the Fiumei út cemetery on October 15, 2024.
MTI/Zoltán Máthé
