Cegléd, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Hungary — January 13, 1887
Death data:
Owen Sound, ON, Canada — September 24, 1974
Denomination:
Roman Catholic
Ecclesiastical status:
diocesan
previously: ciszterciek
Diocese / Order:
ismeretlen egyházmegye
previously: ciszterciek (Ordo Cisterciensis)
Ordination level:
priest
Entry into religious life:
1902
Priestly ordination:
1910
Place of burial:
Owen Sound, ON, Canada
Biographical data
He joined the Cistercian Order in 1902. He earned a teaching degree in mathematics and physics and a doctorate in the humanities. He was ordained a priest in 1910. He left the order in 1916, converted to the Reformed faith, and subsequently passed the Reformed pastoral examination in Debrecen. From 1916 to 1918, he was a teacher at a secondary school in Budapest; from November 1918 to March 1919 he served as State Secretary at the Ministry of Religion and Public Education, and during the Hungarian Soviet Republic he taught at the Teacher Training Institute for Public Schools and the agitator training school of the People’s Commissariat for Public Education. He was subsequently stripped of his teaching position. From 1921 to 1923, he was editor of the opposition journal Független Szemle. He was prosecuted for publishing illegal leaflets. He fled to England. He returned in 1925, was prosecuted a second time, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He escaped from prison again, went to Vienna, and then emigrated to Canada. From 1928 to 1949, he served at the United Church of All Nations in Toronto. Between 1939 and 1951, he published and edited the monthly magazine Tárogató. During World War II, he served as vice president of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Alliance, which was close to Mihály Károlyi. In 1950, he returned to the Catholic faith and later to the priesthood.
Domestic service locations
From
To
Place
Country
Church / institution
Position
1910
1916
Zirc
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Hungary
Zirci Ciszterci Apátság
teacher
1910
1916
Eger
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Hungary
teacher
1910
1916
Székesfehérvár
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Hungary
teacher
1910
1916
Baja
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Hungary
teacher
Foreign service locations
From
To
Place
Country
Church / institution
Position
1950
1967
Halifax, NS
Canada
St. Mary’s University
art history teacher; by 1957, he was listed as a priest.
Literary activity
Abelard Ethikája. Tanulmány. (Bp., 1909);
A vallás lélektana (Pécs, 1915);
A katholikus papság lélektana: valláspszichológiai tanulmány a róm. kath. papságról (Bp., 1916);
A protestantizmus szelleme (Bp., 1917);
A vallás a kommunista társadalmakban (Bp., 1919);
A vallásfilozófia alapvonalai (Bp., 1921);
A vallási fejlődés útjai (Bp., 1922);
Kereszténység és modern élet (Kolozsvár, 1926).
Jegyzetek Madách Imre: Az ember tragédiájához; Christian Press, Winnipeg, 1945
Czakó Ambró Lajos (O.Cist): personal record. In: Historical directory of Hungarian, Hungarian-descended, and Hungarian-speaking clergy serving abroad. Available at: https://www.diaszporalelkipasztorok.hu/persons_v2/view.php?id=131 (accessed: 2026-04-05).