To Overcome All the Obstacles and Fulfil the Mission

Review of Mihalik, B. V., 2024. The Ever-Reviving Phoenix. Jesuits in Hungary. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 129 p. (Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies)

Abstract

The work by the Hungarian historian Béla Vilmos Mihalik The Ever-Reviving Phoenix. The Jesuits in Hungary is dedicated to the history of the Society of Jesus in Hungary — from the first appearance of the Jesuits here in 1561 to the present day. The author examines the numerous difficulties that they had to overcome throughout the period under study. They were associated with the struggle against representatives of Protestant movements, with various prohibitions from secular (in 1620–1622, 1950) and even church authorities (dissolution of the order in 1773). The work convincingly shows that despite all the obstacles, the Jesuits continued to persistently carry out the tasks that were formulated in the initial period of the order’s creation — they were actively involved in missionary work, pedagogical and social activities, and participated in the signing of the church union of the Catholic and Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe. Thanks
to their efforts, the Hungarian Independent Province was established in 1909, but it did not last long — it suffered a serious blow in 1950, when the Society, under the conditions of socialist Hungary, found itself in metaphorical catacombs. The work is complemented by an extensive list of studies by Hungarian Jesuits and document publications.