Blessed Stephen Sandor “Returns Home”
(ANS – Budapest – June 5, 2022) – A solemn Mass took place on Saturday, June 4, at the Salesian Clarisseum in Budapest. The main celebrant was the Rector Major, Fr. Angel Fernández Artime. The blessing and placement of the reliquary of Blessed Stephen Sandor took place at the end of the Mass.
Providentially, a
few weeks ago, the entire building, where the headquarters of the Hungarian province
and some other buildings which the communist regime had nationalized 72 years
ago, was handed back to the Salesians as their property. Included is the
printing house where Bro. Stephen Sandor worked. In these courtyards an
emotional celebration took place, attended by numerous members of the Salesian
Family. At the beginning of the celebration, the provincial, Fr. Janos Andrasfalvy,
extended greetings to all present, in particular to the Rector Major, the regional
councilor for Central and Northern Europe, Fr. Roman Jachimowicz, the postulator
general, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, Fr. Jorge Crisafulli, superior of the province
of Nigeria-Niger, Fr. Albert Van Hecke, former provincial in Hungary, and Bryan
Magro, world president of the Confederation of Past Pupils. The presence of
some older men who had been boys in Stephen Sandor’s time or his fellow
prisoners was most significant.
In his homily the
Rector Major stressed that it is God who guides history and events, even when
it is human beings who wish to pursue death and injustice: “Blessed Stephen Sandor
is coming home and we, the Salesian Family, friends of Don Bosco, Salesians of
Don Bosco, can return home to where we live and continue to do good…. Stephen Sandor’s
relics, like the relics of all the saints and blesseds, are like stars in the
heavens that strengthen our faith…. A reliquary has a strong symbolic meaning
expressing Stephen Sandor’s life; in particular is the Salesian cross with its
motto “Strive to make yourself loved.” The Lord’s cross is stronger than all of
the world’s chains. You can injure a few thinkers, you can kill a few people,
but you can never silence God. You cannot silence the goodness of so many
people who cherish the faith and the Gospel. Here we have the testimony of a
young Salesian brother, a printer who assisted among the boys, taught
catechism, loved God and Don Bosco, and his life is more forceful because he is
a model of life for us.
The reliquary, the
work of a goldsmith, holds the relics rediscovered and identified in 2019.
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