Sándor Rostás, SVD (Szeged, 1932 – Szombathely, July 2, 2019) was a Roman Catholic priest, a Divine Word Missionary, a missionary in Argentina, and the director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Hungary. His life story is a unique example of a generation whose religious vocation was interrupted for decades by the communist dictatorship, but which was later able to fulfill its original missionary calling. He served as a pastor in the Diocese of Szeged–Csanád, then secretly joined the Society of the Divine Word before the fall of communism, and finally, at the age of sixty, fulfilled his childhood dream as a missionary in Argentina.
He was born in Szeged in 1932. He began his high school studies at the Piarist High School in Szeged. Even as a child, he had wanted to become a missionary, so at the age of seventeen, in 1949, he entered the Verbite mission house in Kőszeg. However, due to the dissolution of religious orders in 1950, his monastic training was interrupted. Although he could not officially remain a member of the order, he continued to maintain ties with the Divine Word Missionaries. He continued his theological studies in Szeged and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Csanád in 1956.
He began his priestly ministry in Battonya as an assistant pastor and then continued in Ásotthalom. Between 1964 and 1968, he served as a chaplain at several parishes in Szeged, after which he became the pastor of Dombegyháza. In 1977, he was appointed pastor of Kistelek, where he served for fifteen years. During his pastoral ministry, significant renovations were carried out on the church: the bells were modernized, the organ was refurbished, the statues were restored, and the heating and electrical systems were upgraded. He devoted particular attention to religious education and the pastoral care of young people; during his tenure, the number of children attending catechism classes increased severalfold. Because of his approachability and simple lifestyle, the parishioners referred to him as the “bicycle priest.” In recognition of his work, the town of Kistelek named him an honorary citizen.
He never gave up his monastic vocation, even during the decades of communist rule. In 1984, he became one of the first novices at the secretly operating Divine Word Missionaries’ novitiate, and in 1988, he took his perpetual vows in the Society of the Divine Word. Thus, after more than thirty years of service as a diocesan priest, his youthful religious vocation was officially fulfilled.
In 1992—at the age of sixty—he received permission to go on mission to Argentina. He worked in the province of Misiones, near the Iguazú Falls, among the Guaraní Indians and the settlers living there. For four years, he carried out evangelization and pastoral work in communities to which he had previously been connected only through the aspirations of his youth. After returning home, he gave lectures throughout the country about his missionary experiences, considering the missionary education of children and young people to be a particularly important task.
In 1999, the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference appointed him director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Hungary. He held this position for ten years. Under his leadership, the national network of missionary works—which was being reorganized following the change of regime—was consolidated, with particular emphasis placed on awakening a sense of mission, children’s missions, and strengthening the Hungarian Church’s ties with global missions. From 2001 to 2007, he concurrently served as rector of the Divine Word Missionaries’ mission house in Budatétény.
Later, he returned to pastoral ministry: he served as an assistant in Ásotthalom, and then, from 2010 to 2013, he was rector of the Divine Word Missionaries’ house in Kőszeg. Even in his retirement years, he remained actively involved in the life of the order and the local parishes, regularly giving talks about his missionary experiences and celebrating Mass.