News

April 29, 2025

Author: Vitéz Jacob Madway Bressmann

On April 26, in McLean, Virginia of the greater Washington, D.C. area, the Kossuth Foundation hosted the fourth annual all-day Hungarian Heritage Festival, featuring performances by Hungarian folk music groups.

As with previous years, the Hungarian Embassy and many diaspora organizations, including the Vitézi Rend, were present to celebrate our shared pride in Hungarian culture, music, cuisine, and art.

Each year, the festival welcomes approximately one thousand visitors from across the East Coast of the United States. As more and more Americans become interested in Hungarian culture, and as greater numbers of Americans re-discover their Hungarian roots and ancestry, the festival serves as a beacon for the Hungarian community in the Nation’s Capital region of the United States.

Vitéz Jacob Madway Bressmann, the Order’s new Washington Area Lieutenant, represented the Order at this year’s festival and hosted a booth to share more information about the Order, its mission, and good works. Representation at the festival is part of a greater endeavor to reinvigorate the presence of the Vitézi Rend in North America, with plans for future partnerships with other Hungarian organizations of shared values in the works. It is our hope to have future events in North America, and to help others in the region to discover the Order and embrace our efforts to advance the causes of Hungarian culture and patriotism around the world.

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April 26, 2025

Crown Council of Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Crown Council extends its deep condolences to the Roman Catholic Church and its faithful around the world – and particularly to the numerous Catholic congregations in Ethiopia – for the passing last week of His Holiness Pope Francis I. Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council, has released a statement commemorating the late Pope and his legacy of peace and love.

“I had the good fortune to meet His Holiness Pope Francis in May 2021,” Prince Ermias said. “Pope Francis embodied compassion and the courage to work towards peace. His mission will live on in our own work, in our own service, in our decision to advance his values in Ethiopia and around the world.”

When Prince Ermias met with Pope Francis, it renewed a relationship between the Holy See and Ethiopia dating back many centuries. The Vatican had hosted Ethiopian pilgrims ever since the fifteenth century. A century ago, Pope Benedict XV converted a hostel for those pilgrims into the Pontifical Ethiopian College, the only seminary of its kind within Vatican walls, and a special stop on Prince Ermias’s 2021 visit. Prince Ermias’s grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie I, met with Pope Paul VI in November 1970.

“I was honored,” Prince Ermias said, “to visit Pontifical Ethiopian College during my visit to meet Pope Francis, and I felt as if he and I represented the continuity of our respective legacies, spiritual and secular. But I understood his humanity, his love of the poor, his devotion to his calling to mean that we should not focus on memories of our past, but on building our shared future.”

Prince Ermias noted the Pope’s personal role in the search for peace and reconciliation in the Horn of Africa. “Pope Francis passionately prayed and appealed for peace and stability in South Sudan,” Prince Ermias noted. “We will never forget the moment in 2019 when His Holiness knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar. We know that he also prayed for peace in Ethiopia after our meeting in 2021. In turn, we now pray that Pope Francis’s transition from mortality to immortality will lead to the restoration of peace and national cohesion in South Sudan, and that Ethiopia’s spiritual and secular leaders will follow his example in praying and working for peace on our own home.”

Prince Ermias also noted, “Pope Francis was known for concluding his audiences with one simple, powerful request: ‘Pray for me.’ And now, with hearts full of faith and memory, we do just that. He was a truly gifted, blessed and humble human being. In this world of uncertainty, fear, and violence, his wisdom will truly be missed. We will pray for his soul in unison.”

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April 23, 2025

Author: Vitéz Nob.  Attila Bánó Historian Staff Captain

Let me begin by saying that I’m not superstitious, and I don’t believe in the myths surrounding numerology, but from time to time I encounter phenomena that make me stop and think.

Before Easter, I was waiting for the publisher to send me the typeset version of my new book’s manuscript. I always create an index of names for my books. This time, too, I had already prepared the list of personal and place names, which was just waiting to be matched with page numbers.

Just before Good Friday, the full edited material of the upcoming book finally arrived — around 450 pages long. I should mention that most of this is made up of 500 archival, in-text photographs, which split up the text far more than if it had been presented continuously.

I set to work. I knew that Holy Saturday isn’t meant for work, but I thought the Almighty would forgive me if I finished the name index for the book Northern Transylvania Has Returned, 1940, (Észak-Erdély hazatért, 1940) which many are eagerly awaiting. Well, when I got to the word Jerusalem among the hundreds of alphabetically ordered names, the search program showed only one page number. It was page 33.

That hit me hard, as I immediately saw the age of our Lord Christ associated with Jerusalem. I thought to myself: what are the chances that this city — the site of Jesus’s crucifixion — would appear on exactly page 33 of a 450-page book, and that I would discover it on the very day commemorating His suffering and death, on the eve of celebrating His resurrection?

I can’t pretend to answer that question or explain the meaning of this story, but there must be some explanation for this event that feels so miraculous.

Wishing you a Blessed Easter!
Vitéz Attila Bánó de Tapolylucska et Kükemező
Historian Staff Captain

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April 17, 2025

Our spiritual staff captain, Dr. Vitéz Imre Vejkey de Vejke – Leader of the Hungarian Parliamentary Prayer Group – greets the members of the Order of Vitéz with the following lines on the occasion of the blessed holiday of Easter.

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A Blessed Easter I Wish for You,
In the Light of the Risen Christ!

Hear now, everything else can wait,
Turn to the Lord, who rose for your sake,
Who says that love must lead the faith –
Listen, and feel your soul awake!

Hear now, everything else can wait,
The nard oil may now anoint His feet,
So precious – just like fleeting time –
Longing, who comes from Golgotha complete.

Hear now, everything else can wait,
The dipped bread may betrayal bring.
Lord, wipe away each trace of stain
That evil’s snare might try to cling.

Hear now, everything else can wait,
Yet the rooster crows, and denial flows –
For shadows tear instead of light,
Your soul in battle, its hope for shelter grows.

Hear now, everything else can wait,
Cleanse your soul, be worthy finding the Lord
You’ll find the root born from the Cross
Which leads to the source of life so adored.

Amen!

March 24, 2025

Author: Vitéz Nob. Mária Fekete de Galántha

In Melbourne, Australia, a commemoration was held for the Revolution of 1848 March 15, symbolising national independence and freedom.

Vitéz Lilla Kövesdy-Ámon, Staff Captain of Australia Region, Vitéz Nob.  Mária Fekete de Galántha, Seat Captain of Victoria Region and Vitéz Caroline Fazakas laid flowers at the Heroes Memorial at the Hungarian Centre, Melbourne, Australia. They were then joined by Vitéz István Márton and Vitez Kató Márton.

Several members of the Order of Vitéz have strong connections with the Hungarian Community. The wreathing was followed by a special commemoration performance, opened by István Tárody the Hungarian Consul in Melbourne.

A performance with the title: “I am Hungarian” was presented by the Tabán Dance Ensemble, Talláros Ensemble, Hungarian Centre Fonó Dance Ensemble, and Melbourne independent dancers and actors.

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