His parents were Antal Chladek, a mechanical engineer, and Irén Meivald. He was a student at the St. Imre Cistercian High School. He entered the order on August 29, 1949, in Zirc. He left Hungary in 1950. He began his theological studies in Rome at the Pontificio Ateneo e Collegio Sant’Anselmo, then went to the Cistercian monastery in Wisconsin in 1953. He arrived in the United States, in New York, NY, on January 23, 1953, aboard the Andrea Doria. He was ordained a priest on May 14, 1955. He celebrated his first Mass at the newly established Cistercian Abbey in Irving, TX, where he lived until his death. After 1981, he served as a pastor at the Carswell Air Force Base and at St. Monica Parish in Dallas. From 2014 to 2017, he lived in a nursing home.