Károly Engelbert Sarlós (Schwáb) OSB, a Benedictine monk, Roman Catholic priest, mathematics teacher, and university professor, was a leading figure in the Hungarian Benedictine mission in Brazil and at Colégio Santo Américo in São Paulo. For more than three and a half decades, he served the Hungarian émigré community in Brazil, while playing a significant role in establishing the Hungarian Benedictines’ network of educational and cultural institutions.
He was born in Budapest on March 7, 1916. He entered the Order of Saint Benedict at Pannonhalma on August 6, 1934; he took his simple vows in 1936 and his solemn vows on June 28, 1939. He was ordained a priest on June 16, 1940. Even as a young monk, he was preparing for a career in teaching: from 1940 to 1941, he worked as a student teacher in Budapest, after which he taught at a high school in Sopron and, beginning in 1943, in Esztergom.
During World War II, he served as a military chaplain. At the end of the war, he was taken prisoner by the Soviets and held captive in Russia from 1945 to 1947. This period became a defining experience of his life.
From 1948 to 1949, he served as director of the Benedictine retreat center in Balatonfüred, and then left Hungary in 1949. He arrived in Brazil in 1949, where, together with his fellow monk, Szeverin Kögl, he joined the work of the Hungarian Benedictine mission that was taking shape in São Paulo.
Initially, he provided pastoral care for Hungarian émigrés, and later participated in the organization of the Hungarian Benedictines’ most significant educational venture in Brazil, the Colégio Santo Américo. The three main initiators of the school’s founding were Emil Jordán, OSB; Engelbert Sarlós, OSB; and the lay professor János Ecsődi. Within a short time, the institution developed into one of São Paulo’s most respected Catholic high schools.
He taught mathematics at the school from 1951 to 1958, while also serving as vice principal. From 1958 to 1974, he served as the school’s principal (reitor); under his leadership, the school underwent significant development, and the Hungarian-founded institution became one of the recognized centers of Catholic education in Brazil.
At the same time, from 1959 until his death, he was a professor of mathematics at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) in São Paulo. As a university professor, he played a role in educating generations of students, while continuing to take an active part in the religious and cultural life of the Hungarian Benedictine community and the Hungarian émigré community in Brazil.
His work was closely intertwined with the development of the St. Gellért Monastery in São Paulo, which became one of the most important ecclesiastical and cultural centers for Hungarians in South America. The school, library, cultural institutions established by the Hungarian Benedictines, and the pastoral ministry to the Hungarian community shaped Hungarian Catholic life in Brazil for many decades.
Engelbert Sarlós passed away on September 3, 1986, in São Paulo.

In the body of the biography, the date of birth is listed as March 7, while the header lists it as March 17.