Cirill T. Hortobágyi
Pope Leo XIV received the ecumenical delegation led by Cirill T. Hortobágyi, Archabbot of Pannonhalma, during a general audience. On Wednesday evening, the Hungarian archabbey held a gala concert in the Roman Benedictine Basilica of St. Anselm in honor of the jubilee year.
Cirill T. Hortobágyi said that he had had several opportunities to meet Pope Leo XIV recently. On November 11, the head of the Church and the archabbot took part in the celebrations marking the 125th anniversary of the consecration of the Basilica of St. Anselm, and at the end of November they also met in Istanbul during the Pope’s visit to Türkiye.
Members of the ecumenical delegation included Tamás Fabiny, bishop of the Northern Church District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Károly Fekete, bishop of the Transtibiscan Reformed Church District. On Wednesday evening, Hortobágyi opened the festive concert organized jointly by the archabbot and the Hungarian Academy in Rome in the basilica of St. Anselm, filled with spectators.
The Korossy Quartet and Zsolt Kiss, organ teacher in Pannonhalma, performed at the concert.
The archabbot emphasized that St. Anselm’s Basilica on the Aventine Hill in Rome is the center of the Benedictine Order, and that since September of this year, the rector of the university next to the basilica has been Jákó Fehérvári, a monk from Pannonhalma. He added that the connection between the Basilica of St. Anselm and Pannonhalma dates back to the founding of the abbey in Hungary, as St. Adalbert sent the monks on their journey from the Aventine Hill, who first founded a monastery near Prague in 993, and then three years later in Martinsberg (Pannonhalma).
P. Konrád Dejcsics OSB. Photo: MTI/Krizsán Csaba
Speaking about the concert in Rome, Benedictine monk Konrád Dejcsics, cultural director of the archabbey, said that the aim was to give the Roman audience an insight into the Arcus Temporum festival. He believed that the arts festival, taking place every summer in Pannonhalma, is perhaps the highest-quality cultural experience in Catholic Hungary, where music, visual arts, literature, and spirituality come together.”
Father Dejcsics added that they are working to make the festival internationally known and that Rome was the “best possible” first stop on the occasion of the Holy Year.
Via MTI; Featured image: MTI/Krizsán Csaba
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