August 25, 2009

From:  Ildiko Peller, a parishioner of St. Emeric parish.

To:  Mike O’Malley and Bob Smith at Cleveland Plain Dealer

Thoughts About St. Emeric Church on the Occasion of St. Stephen’s Day

In the light of Bishop Lennon’s decision to close St. Emeric Parish on June 30, 2010, this past Sunday was the last St. Stephen’s Day celebration at this parish.  The church was filled to capacity by parishioners, the Scouts, several Hungarian-American organizations and guests who came to participate in the 9:45 Mass. 

Over one thousand years ago, as documented in the historic Pannonhalma Chronicles, St. Stephen, first king of Hungary and saint of the Universal Church, formed a central government and established Christianity among the Hungarians who settled in the Carpathian Basin.  He was crowned king of Hungary on January 1, 1001 with a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II and which crown makes up a part of the nation’s precious Holy Crown today.  Before his death in 1038, King Stephen offered his nation, symbolically by offering his crown to the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  St. Emeric Church has a mural depicting this event and was also on the front cover of the Mass program last Sunday.  The Scouts, dressed in traditional folk costume, placed a replica of this Holy Crown in front of the Blessed Mother’s statue to commemorate this historic event. 

Hungary, in its more than thousand years history, has had its vicissitudes, with many outside forces trying to conquer it.  Even this past century and the latter part of the previous century experienced this, forcing large numbers of Hungarians to find new homes elsewhere in the world, many in the United States of America.  These immigrants became hard working citizens of their new homeland and yet maintained many of their traditions.  To this end they sacrificed much to build the necessities in their life, their churches, as seen here in the city of Cleveland.  St. Emeric Parish was built by the sweat and hard work of those immigrants in 1904 and has been maintained by the waves of newer immigrants who were forced more recently from their native Hungary.  More than a century of active parish life at St. Emeric, located in Ohio City behind the West Side Market, attests to the fact that Hungarian-Americans worship as a community, enriching the life of the city of Cleveland, while maintaining many of the traditions of a thousand year old nation. 

St. Emeric, patron saint of our church here, was the only son of St. Stephen.  Although he was not able to follow in his father’s footsteps as king because he was killed in a hunting accident, his short life was a virtuous one in the light of Christianity and was proclaimed saint of the Universal Church in 1083, together with his father, Stephen.

The parishioners of St. Emeric Parish were deeply saddened and perplexed by Bishop Lennon’s order to close their beloved and yet needed parish.  They would like to remain a contributing member of this community, strengthening the Diocese with its prayers and contributions, and embracing the wonderful diversity of the city of Cleveland.