St. Elizabeth’s Centenary Celebration 2008 in Hungary
The centenary of St. Elizabeth has come to an end. For me it started almost three years ago now, in February 2006. And how much has happened in that time! I will probably never be properly able to grasp it all, but here at least is what happened on this round in Hungary, during the General Chapter of the Secular Franciscans and the last of the centenary celebrations.
I arrived at Budapest airport on schedule on Saturday, November 15, but trouble soon developed. My luggage didn’t appear on the carousel. In fact, the luggage of a number of people on my flight didn’t appear. I had to get in line to report it missing. To make matters worse, my video camera and tripod were in those bags! I knew that volunteer drivers were supposed to be outside, and they wouldn’t know whether I had arrived or not or what was keeping me. I couldn’t go through customs until I was finished. Fortunately, the drivers were still waiting, holding up a sign announcing the chapter, and I went right over to them. They were meeting several of us from different flights at the same time. We got into the van and took of for the Manreza Spiritual Center in Dobogókö.
The northern part of Hungary between Budapest and Esztergom is mountainous and really gorgeous, even in gray November. The center is located in in a winter ski resort area, with a beautiful central lodge, where the conference hall is located. It has bedrooms on the upper floors, plus two other buildings with other bedrooms. There I met Michael, the cameraman, who had already arrived all the way from sunny California, and some of my fellow SFO’s who had appeared in the first interviews for the documentary back in 2007.
On Saturday and Sunday, we filmed the liturgies, chapter meetings and liturgical celebrations for the planned chapter video. Fortunately my luggage was returned Sunday afternoon, and I could take part in the filming of backup video from angles different than Michael’s.
Our first important work for the St. Elizabeth documentary was on Monday, November 17, when we attended the closing celebrations for her centenary in Esztergom, some 20 miles to the north. Esztergom was the seat and main residence not only of the archbishop, but of the medieval Arpad dynasty, and of St. Elizabeth’s father, King Andrew II. Elizabeth’s brother, Bela IV, eventually moved the royal seat to Budapest after the Mongol invasion devastated Esztergom in 1241. Only part of the castle remained and was given to the bishop.
The earliest basilica on the spot was built by St. Stephen, Hungary’s first Christian king and Elizabeth’s ancestor and dedicated to St. Adalbert; according to tradition, Stephen was crowned in the basilica in 1000. It was ruined and rebuilt several times because of invasions and other disasters. The building of the present church began in 1822. The beautiful fresco of the Assumption by Michelangelo Grigoletti over the high altar reflects its second dedication to Blessed Mary Taken into Heaven.
Unfortunately our group’s visit inside the castle before Mass had to be scrapped, because nobody had realized that the Castle Museum was closed Mondays. Even influential art expert Maria Prokopp, who was planning to go with our group as a guide couldn’t get us in. That was a tremendous disappointment (but it turned out well in the end, as you’ll see). So we had to be content with exploring around the outside of the cathedral and castle, where there is a beautiful statue of the crowning of St. Stephen.
The Mass in the cathedral concluding the centenary was celebrated by Laszlo Cardinal Paskai, O.F.M., the former primate of Hungary, and a Franciscan. The Franciscan priests of Hungary, and the Franciscan Conference of Spiritual Assistants to the SFO concelebrated and Hungarian SFO members were there, along with the whole the General Chapter of the SFO. Everyone was deeply moved by the Mass, and by receiving St. Elizabeth’s bread at the altar afterwards, a symbol of her generous kindness to others; we were also given a chance to kiss her relic. Since I was only filming backup video, I was able to enjoy this Mass much more than the one in Assisi.
Michael was interested in some outdoor shots of Esztergom, especially the castle and cathedral. So that night he made arrangements to have Jozsef, one of the SFO volunteer drivers, take us back into town the next morning and drop us off on his way into Budapest to pick someone up at the airport. We were told that the Castle Museum would also be open, and that we could stop in there, but whether we could get permission to shoot was anyone’s guess. We set out shortly after 7:00 and to our delight, Jozsef told us that he didn’t have to pick anyone up after all, and that he could drive us around for the whole morning if we wanted.
Our first goal when we arrived back in Esztergom was to get a good shot of the castle from the river. As it happens, the Danube river there is the border line between Hungary and Slovakia. We drove to the middle of the bridge, and just before you get to the Slovakian border guards, there is a little place you can park on the bridge, just perfect for taking pictures and video. The light was rather hazy and Michael would have preferred a night shot when the castle was lighted up, but the view was still spectacular.
After that, we had a stop for coffee and juice at a little cafe. (We had left before breakfast at the center; I hadn’t had anything to eat but my St. Elizabeth’s bread). Then we decided to look for a hilly area where Michael could get panoramic shots of the town, since the museum didn’t open until 10:00. I We went up a steep road, stopped at a level spot, and shot the castle and cathedral. I took this photo, though the castle isn’t really visible. 
But Michael believed there was an even higher elevation. We drove up a very steep hill and found that by going up an even steeper path you could reach a spot that offered a splendid bird’s-eye view of the city. A torn toenail that had become infected was bothering me, so I stayed below in Jozsef’s van while he and Michael took the path and got the shot.
Then it was on to the museum. The permissions question worked itself out miraculously and soon we were exploring the museum with our video cameras. We spent around two hours there, much more time than the 20-30 minutes we would have had with the group, though unfortunately this meant we didn’t get to incorporate any shots of the group in the video.
Here is a room from the 12th-century part of the castle, a room Elizabeth might have played in as a child. The Romanesque architecture is quite similar to the rooms of Wartburg Castle, Elizabeth’s home after she was engaged to Ludwig of Thuringia and left to go to Germany at the age of four, around 1211. 
Michael also shot some video in the castle courtyard. This is just before we went into the other, more recent side of the castle complex. 
Inside, we filmed the Knight’s Hall; at one end of it was a replica of the crown of St. Stephen; the original is jealously guarded in the Hungarian state treasury; a very precious symbol of the nation. It seems from recent studies that a part of it does date back to the early 11th century, the time of St. Stephen; this part was incorporated into the later crown. Jozsef told us that a later king of Hungary was once being pursued on horseback by an enemy while wearing the original crown, when he fell off his horse and his crown was damaged: the cross on top was bent. When the copy was made, it reproduced everything exactly, including the bent cross! 
We then climbed the stairs to the top floor of this newer part, and went out onto a balcony with a spectacular view of the Danube river that flowed right under the castle walls. Michael tooks some more video from here, but he had already taken some film of the river from every window we came across. We ended our visit to the castle reluctantly, and Michael took some more shots inside the cathedral before we went back to the conference center. We told Jozsef that he deserved a spot in the credits of the completed film!
Our day-long tour of Budapest on Thursday, November 20, was splendid. Once again we got on the buses, and it didn’t seem long before we were there. As we drove along, Suszanna, one of the Hungarian chapter members, gave us a brief explanation of the sights. One of the most impressive was the Hungarian Parliament building across the river; another was the famous Chain bridge with the stone lions at the entrance. We stopped at the Royal Palace and from the terrace in back got a splendid view of the city and the Danube river. We then stopped in Holy Trinity Square, where the Church of Matthias is located. The Church is actually dedicated to Our Lady, but gained its name because the marriages of King Matthias Corvinus were celebrated there. It is also the coronation church of the Hungarian kings,The church was unfortunately largely covered with scaffolding, but King Matthias himself was there, represented in a fine equestrian statue in the nearby square. We looked in a few souvenir shops, then on to our next stop, St. Elizabeth’s Church in Roses Square. On the way, we passed Margaret Island, where Elizabeth’s niece, St. Margaret of Hungary (1242-1271), lived in a Dominican convent, imitating her aunt in lowly service to the poor.
St. Elizabeth’s Church, where the people of Budapest honor their national patroness is a lovely, Neo-Gothic structure, built around 1900. It’s surrounded by a gate, and a beautiful green park in front. 
In front, there is a statue of St. Elizabeth in her most famous pose, holding roses. It recalls the famous story of her meeting her husband Ludwig as she was carrying some bread to the poor in her skirt. She didn’t want him to criticize her for her excessive charity, so when he asked what she was carrying, she said roses. When he looked in her skirt, he actually saw roses there. Modern scholars very much doubt this story because a) Elizabeth’s husband certainly never opposed her charities, b) the earliest versions give a different version of the story, in which she is a small child meeting her father, King Andrew II of Hungary; c) Elizabeth’s attitude and actions as portrayed in the story have much more in common with those of a small child and her father than a grown woman and her husband. Another reason for doubting the story is that it is a very common one, found in a number of saints’ lives, including that of Elizabeth’s contemporary, St. Rose of Viterbo.
Our last stop was at the Millennium Monument in Heroes’ squre, with its monumental statues of Elizabeth’s ancestors and relatives of the Arpad dynasty: Arpad himself, the tribal leader and his companions; King Stephen I, King Andrew II, and King Bela IV.
Later in the week, we did all of our interviews, though finding times when people would be available in the right schedule of the chapter was difficult. But in the end we got everything we needed. I was especially happy to interview the younger Secular Franciscans, who gave an appreciation of what Elizabeth means to young people.
It seemed almost incredible when the time had already come to go home.
Now with all this new footage, my next task is to edit a new trailer for the documentary, which I hope to have online soon. See keep watching this site!
(Note, click on any of the photos above to get the full-size version. The new image management on Wordpress has proved very difficult for me to master, and the full-size pictures don’t align properly).
Update on May 30, 2009. After many delays, the trailer is almost ready
