Sándor Bálint

Sándor Bálint is considered the founding father of religious ethnography (or sacred ethnology) in Hungary. From 1930, he worked as a volunteer assistant to the researcher Sándor Solymossy at the Institute of Ethnography in Szeged. From 1931 to 1944, at the request of Bishop Gyula Glattfelder of Csanád, he taught at the Catholic Teachers' College in Szeged. Qualified as a private university lecturer in 1934, he was appointed full professor of the chair of ethnography at the University of Szeged in 1947. Parallel to his academic career, he was briefly involved in politics after the Second World War. A member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), and later the Democratic People's Party (DNP) led by István Barankovics, he was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly in 1945 and 1947. However, following the arrest of Cardinal József Mindszenty by the communist regime, he resigned from his mandate in December 1948 and withdrew from political life. Due to his overt Catholic faith and daily religious practice, he suffered severe persecution by the communist regime: from 1950 to 1956, his teaching authorization was revoked, and he was relegated to a position as a university librarian; although authorized to resume his courses in 1957, he remained under constant police surveillance; in 1965, he was arrested and given a suspended prison sentence for "incitement against the regime," under the pretext of possessing books critical of the authorities; in 1966, he was forced into early retirement. Despite these trials, he continued his research and published major works of European importance for the study of Catholic folk traditions, notably Népünk ünnepei (1938), Sacra Hungaria (1944), Karácsony, húsvét, pünkösd (1974), and his monumental Ünnepi kalendárium (1977). He also assembled an immense collection of popular piety objects, now preserved at the Ferenc Móra Museum in Szeged.

The reputation for holiness of Sándor Bálint spread immediately after his death in 1980. His former students and numerous faithful, convinced that he lived as a saint, organized regular commemorations at his grave in the Szeged cemetery. Faced with this constant fervor, the Diocese of Szeged-Csanád officially opened his cause for beatification. The diocesan inquiry took place from January 3, 2005, to November 13, 2006, under the leadership of Bishop Endre Gyulay, and subsequently Bishop László Kiss-Rigó. The postulator of the cause was first Father János Szőke SDB, then Father József Ruppert SchP for the Roman phase. The validity of the diocesan inquiry was officially recognized by a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on May 8, 2009.

The process reached a decisive stage on May 22, 2021. During an audience granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Sándor Bálint. Through this act, the Hungarian layman was officially declared "Venerable." For his beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession is now required.

Affectionately nicknamed "the most Szeged-like of the Szeged residents" (a legszögedibb szögedi), Sándor Bálint left an indelible mark on his native region. His spirituality was deeply Eucharistic and Marian, nourished by daily Mass and communion, which he refused to abandon despite the threats of the totalitarian regime. He conceived of his scientific work not as a mere academic discipline, but as a true ministry in the service of preserving the Christian soul of the Hungarian people. His intellectual and spiritual legacy is today perpetuated by the foundation that bears his name and by the Sándor Bálint Institute for the Study of Religion, founded in 2009 in Szeged. In tribute to his memory, a statue was erected in the Pantheon of Szeged and a bell in the city's Franciscan church was named in his honor.