Lajos Ordass

Lajos Ordass (1901–1978), born Lajos Wolf, was a Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Hungary. In 1944 he changed his name to Ordass, Hungarian for wolf, to protest the German occupation of Hungary.[1] Like Cardinal József Mindszenty, Bishop Ordass resisted communism in Hungary at great personal cost.[2] He was convicted in a show trial and sentenced to two years in prison in 1948.[3] After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he was able to resume exercise of his bishop's office, but was removed a second time in 1958, living in forced retirement after that until his death in 1978.[4] Ordass was elected twice to be vice president of the Lutheran World Federation, in 1947 and 1957.[5] He was rehabilitated posthumously by the Hungarian state after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

Biography

Ordass was born to a German speaking family in the village of Savino Selo (Torschau - German / Torzsa - Hungarian).[6] Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa was settled in the late 18th century during the reign of Emperor Joseph II by German immigrants from Swabia. At that time Torschau was part of Austria-Hungary; today the village is located in Vojvodina, Serbia. Ordass' mother (Paula Steinmetz) was a native of Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa. Ordass' father (Arthur Wolf) moved to the village from Spišský / Szepesség, a region in modern Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Arthur Wolf was the cantor and music instructor for the Lutheran congregation in Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa. Lajos was the fifth of six children born to his parents.[7]

References
  1. entry "Ordass, Lajos" in Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions. ed. Timothy Wengert. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, p. 563.
  2. Böröcz, Enikő (2012). Egzházfő viharban és árnyékban: Ordass Lajos evangélikus hitvalló püspöki szolgálata (1945-1956). Budapest: Luther Kiadó. ISBN 978-963-9979-66-6.
  3. Fabiny, Tibor (2008). The Veil of God: The Testimony of Bishop Lajos Ordass in Communist Hungary. Budapest: Center for Hermeneutical Research. ISBN 978-963-87986-0-2.
  4. Baer, H. David (2006). The Struggle of Hungarian Lutherans under Communism. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. pp. 14–26, 62–75. ISBN 978-1-58544-480-9.
  5. Schjǿrring, Jens, et. al., ed. (1997). From Federation to Communion: The History of the Lutheran World Federation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. pp. 30–31, 405–6, 410–11. ISBN 0-8006-3110-2.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  6. Terray, László G. (1997). He Could Not Do Otherwise: Bishop Lajos Ordass 1901-1978. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-8028-4318-2.
  7. Lajos Ordass, Önéletrajzi írások, vol. 1. ed. István Szépfalusi. Bern: EPMSZ, 1985, pp. 11-13.



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