On our liturgical calendar at the Abbey, January 26 is the Solemnity of the Founders of the Cistercian Order – Saints Robert, Alberic and Stephen. For the solemnity this year, Fr. Stephen preached a marvelous homily about the inspiration for our life at Our Lady of Dallas and for Cistercian life around the world. You can find his homily in the Sermons section of the website or by clicking here.
In addition, you can see a wonderful article below, which first appeared in a Hungarian newspaper to commemorate the solemnity (click here for the original). The English translation was made using DeepL and then edited for clarity. We offer it to everyone in commemoration of a hero of the Congregation of Zirc, Fr. Lóránt Sigmond, and in thanksgiving to God for his many blessings upon our community.
May St. Robert, St. Alberic and St. Stephen pray for all monks and nuns, and for all those their lives touch. May God give us all the gift of growing and bearing fruit for the good of the Church here in Texas and throughout the world.
“His radiant soul continues to shine”
Remembering the Cistercian monk Lóránt ‘Sigmond
January 23, 2025
On January 26, the Cistercians commemorate the three abbots who are considered the founders of the order, Saint Robert, Saint Albert and Saint Stephen Harding. The feast is an opportunity to commemorate not only 12th-century but also more recent religious role models. In the following piece of writing, Fr. Lóránt ‘Sigmond, a Cistercian who died more than sixty years ago, is recalled by his fellow religious in Dallas and Zirc. Fr. Lóránt did not write any new monastic rule or influential scholarly treatise, nor is his name preserved by any prestigious institution, but we who are alive today in Dallas and Zirc owe him nothing less than the survival of our monasteries.
But who was he? László ‘Sigmond was born on August 3, 1911, in an educated family in Buda, and in 1929 he entered the community of the Cistercian Abbey of Zirc and received the monastic name of Lóránt. His zeal and sense of duty earned him the recognition of his superiors even as a student. Although he had originally wished to study theology in greater depth, his superiors decided that he should study Hungarian and French. He did so without a single word of protest or contradiction. Although a career in academia was open to him, he wished to put his skills to good use in the main field of his order – the education of young people of secondary school age.
From the beginning, however, in addition to the transmission of theoretical knowledge, he considered it equally important to educate his students in the spiritual life and above all to rely on the grace of God, as is clear from a letter he wrote later in life:
“There is only one life, the life of God in us, independent of external circumstances, for which we need only His grace and our cooperation – that is the meaning of all life.”
He began his work as a teacher at the St. Imre High School in Buda, where, in addition to teaching his courses, he also became the leader of the scout troop. One of his students, András Kubinyi, who became a professor of history, remembered his teacher as follows: “He was the ideal priest-teacher, whose personality could not be separated from that of a priest and a teacher…. These two vocations were perhaps most harmoniously combined in Fr. Lóránt….”
In the summer of 1946, Abbot Vendel Endrédy appointed him novice master, which is an office that requires great responsibility and prudence, since the novice master is essentially entrusted with the formation of a monastery’s future. Fr. Lóránt already had strong educational principles, based on the teaching of St. Augustine and St. Bernard, about the complementarity between self-knowledge and the knowledge of God. The influence of St. Teresa of Lisieux is also most evident in his spirituality. He had ample opportunity to put these principles into practice, since before the dissolution of the Order, a “novitiate” of 15 to 20 young men was entering the monastery each year to seek God more closely. Although not all of them eventually became Cistercian monks, they all recalled with gratitude the spiritual and practical guidance of their novice master.
The communist suppression of the monastic orders in the autumn of 1950 was, of course, a great shock for Fr. Lóránt – and for the entire religious community. Their reaction, however, was not to sink into lethargy and abandon their ideals, but instead to continue their religious life, albeit now in a forced “catacomb” situation.
“If there were only one place on earth where people lived, if there were only one place of faith, love and justice, that would be the most precious place on earth. This is the way to look at the monastery. It is the most precious place. The greater the darkness, the more precious the one place where there is light. The less monastic life is valued, the more important it is that it does not die out.”
After the arrest of Abbot Vendel at the end of October, the abbot’s council decided that Fr. Lóránt should take over the leadership of the dissolved order as abbot provost. This was no small task, considering that there were some 230 people – aged between 17 and 85 – dispersed all over the country. For the student-monks, the youngest members of the community, spiritual formation and further education had to be provided, while for the elderly monastic teachers, who had grown old in their service, the most pressing need was to provide living conditions and housing. Fr. Lóránt was aware that continuing to serve as a spiritual leader in this situation put him at constant risk of persecution and even imprisonment.
Nevertheless, because of his sense of responsibility to the Order, Fr. Lóránt was not content “just” to look after the monastic community already in place. In utmost secrecy, he recruited new young people, and he also took care of their education and training, so that, in keeping with the lines quoted above, they would become torchbearers bringing “light” into the future of the Order. These new monks, in accord with the motto of the Congregation of Zirc, ardere et lucere (“to burn and to shine”), would dedicate themselves to the education and sanctification of the Christian people. Without wishing to be exhaustive, it is enough to think of Blessed János Anastasius Brenner, whom Fr. Lóránt accompanied in his Cistercian vocation and with whom he remained in contact until his martyrdom; and of the brothers who were educated in the so-called “Zugnoviciate” (underground novitiate) we must mention Rókus Kereszty and Dénes Farkasfalvy, who, having left for Dallas, built up the “new Zirc” overseas, and whose theological work enhanced the reputation of their Order internationally.
But a job well done has its rewards. In communist Hungary, Fr. Lóránt’s self-sacrificing and faithful work was ‘rewarded’ by his arrest on May 30, 1961, and while in detention he suffered from the methods of psychological torture. He was charged and found guilty of initiating and leading a conspiracy to overthrow the People’s Republic of Hungary, along with six other charges, and sentenced to a total of seven years’ imprisonment. He was soon diagnosed with kidney cancer and underwent surgery in the prison hospital.
However, the dictatorship did not want Fr. Lóránt to die in prison as a martyr, so in April 1963 he was released, already seriously ill. He was sent to a home for old and sick monks at the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma. As long as his strength allowed, he tried to offer spiritual guidance to the monks and civilians who contacted him through correspondence and personal visits. Cancer gradually consumed his strength, however, and by April 1964 he was entirely dependent on the loving care of his fellow monks. He was in great pain, but he bore it without a single moan, a fact that deeply shocked one of the doctors who visited him.
On July 8, 1964, the Cistercian monk, on the day of the memorial of the Cistercian Pope Blessed John III, died among his fellow monks. Fr. Elizeus, one of his most devoted novices, and later his successor as novice master, recalled his final moments thus: “It was a look so different from the glassy stare into nothingness that we could not interpret it as anything other than a look back from the other side to say goodbye to his loved ones.”
Fr. Placid Csizmazia, one of his closest collaborators in the clandestine education of the young monks, remembered him decades later: ‘‘Fr. Lóránt ‘Sigmond – who, after the arrest of Abbot Vendel, brought the members of the order together and helped them, and organized the education of the students in his quiet, intelligent and illuminating way – gave them lodging and dinner in the small servants’ room he rented for himself. The evening conversations there are lasting memories, memories of meeting a man of extraordinary knowledge, a saint and a martyr.”
We believe that God accepted his sacrifice. And in far-off Texas, the blood of the Hungarian Cistercian martyrs has fallen like a seed into good soil. For in the early 2000s, the Dallas abbey was short of new vocations, so, asking for the heavenly intercession of his former novice master, Abbot Dénes Farkasfavy prayed for the entry of five good novices in ten years. Fr. Lóránt, however, “joked” in his response, as ten excellent young people joined the community in five years.
His memory is still cherished with great veneration, and we can be sure that the seven young Americans who were vested as novices on the feast of St. Bernard will also learn from the example and sacrifice of their religious predecessor who lived in distant Hungary.
The extended family of Cistercians around the world celebrates the three holy founders of the Order during these days. Many centuries separate them from Fr. Lóránt, Blessed John Anastasius Brenner and the other Cistercian martyrs and witnesses, but the fervent love of the beginnings burned in their hearts with the same fidelity and heroism. On this beautiful feast, we thank them and continue to ask for their intercession for the renewal of our lives, and for the joyful fulfilment of our mission!
On January 25 at 6pm, in the Cistercian Church of St. Imre in Buda, there will be a festive Holy Mass in honor of the founders of the Order, which will also be the silver Mass of Lőrinc Huszár OCist in Buda. The Cistercian Sisters of Kismaros will celebrate the feast of the three holy founders of the Order on Sunday January 26 at 11am.