Bánhida, Kingdom of Hungary, currently Tatabánya, Hungary — July 28, 1927
Death data:
Pickering, ON, Canada — May 17, 2008
Denomination:
Roman Catholic
Ecclesiastical status:
religious
Diocese / Order:
jezsuita (Societas Jesu)
Ordination level:
priest
Entry into religious life:
June 30, 1946
Perpetual vows:
Willowdale, ON, Canada — August 15, 1963
Priestly ordination:
Granada, Spain — July 15, 1957
Place of burial:
Courtland, ON, Canada
Biographical data
Tibor Horváth was born in Bánhida into a family of railroad workers. He attended the Piarist high school in Tata from 1938 to 1946. On July 30, 1946, he entered the Society of Jesus in Budapest. In 1948, he began his studies in philosophy in Szeged. In 1949, as secretary to Rector Antal Fábry, he played a significant role in organizing the evacuation of young Hungarian Jesuits abroad. He was one of the last members of the Szeged community to leave Hungary.
As a result of the constant travel involved in the rescue efforts and the weight of responsibility he bore, he contracted tuberculosis. He received treatment at a sanatorium in Bardonecchia and then convalesced in Chieri. He interrupted his philosophy studies in 1952 and did not complete them until 1954. Between 1955 and 1958, he studied theology in Granada, where he was ordained a priest on July 15, 1957. In 1959, he completed his third probationary period in Murcia; in 1960, he was on sick leave in Aschaffenburg; and from 1961 to 1962, he pursued doctoral studies in Rome. He earned his doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University based on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas on love.
In 1962, he moved to Canada and began teaching systematic theology at the Jesuit theological college in Willowdale, which later became Regis College. He continued to work there even after the institution relocated to Toronto in 1970, later serving as a research professor. He taught at the Toronto School of Theology and was also affiliated with the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College.
The idea for the academic program “Ultimate Reality and Meaning” took shape in his mind in 1967. After ten years of preparatory work, he launched the interdisciplinary journal of the same name in 1978 and became its founding editor. It was also on his initiative that the Hungarian Church History Encyclopedia Working Group was formed, whose journal, *Hungarian Church History Sketches – Regnum*, was launched in 1989.
Between 1994 and 1996, he served as the first principal of the Fényi Gyula Jesuit High School in Miskolc. In the final decades of his life, he devoted himself primarily to scholarly work and theological writing. He died on May 17, 2008, at the René Goupil House Jesuit residence in Pickering. He was laid to rest in the Jesuit cemetery in Courtland.
Domestic service locations
From
To
Place i
Current name, country i
Church / institution
Position
1994
1996
Miskolc, Hungary
Fényi Gyula Jezsuita Gimnázium, Kollégium és Óvoda
Professor of Systematic Theology, Assistant Pastor
1963
1970
Willowdale, ON, Canada
Regis College
theology professor
1970
1992
Toronto, ON, Canada
Regis College
theology professor
?
Austria
philosophical studies, patient population
Literary activity
Caritas est in ratione. Die Lehre des Hl. Thomas über die Eiheit der intellektiven und affectiven Begegnung. Róma, 1962, Münster, 1966;
De Christo Legato seu Ingressu Personali Dei in Historiam Humanam. Toronto, 1962–3;
De Fide Virtutibusque Infusis. Toronto, 1963–4; De Gratia Christi Sanctificante seu De Vita in Christo Nova Hominis. Toronto, 1963–5;
De Matrimonio. Toronto, 1964–5;
De Ordine. Toronto, 1964–5;
De revelatione Christi. Toronto, 1965–6;
The Personal Entry of God into Human History. Toronto, 1967;
Encyclopedia of Human Ideas on Ultimate Reality and Meaning. Toronto, 1970;
Topics for a New Encyclopedia. Toronto, 1970; Faith under Scrutiny. Notre Dame, 1975;
A Kinyilatkoztatás teológiája. Róma, 1975, 1977;
The Sacrificial Interpretation of Jesus’ Achievement in the New Testament. New York, 1979;
L’apologetica nella chiesa occidentale del periodo classico della scolastica all’inizio della riforma. Torino, 1987;
Eternity and Eternal Life. Waterloo, Ont. 1993;
Jesus Christ as Ultimate Reality and Meaning. Toronto, 1994; Thinking about Faith I. Love. Toronto, 2006;
Vallomás helyett. 20 éves az U.R.A.M. MJV II. 170–82.
Horváth Tibor SJ, Dr.: 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=439 (accessed: 2026-09-13).
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