Pál Sághy, SDB, was a Roman Catholic priest, a Salesian, and later a diocesan priest who served as a missionary in Cuba and, subsequently, for more than three decades as a pastor to Spanish-speaking Catholic communities in Florida. His work was particularly significant in the pastoral care of Cuban immigrants and seasonal agricultural workers.
He was born on September 19, 1914, in Nyergesújfalu. He prepared for the priesthood as a member of the Salesian Society and was ordained a priest on December 12, 1943, in Camagüey, Cuba. After his ordination, he served as a pastor at various parishes in the Diocese of Camagüey.
In the early 1960s—following the Cuban communist regime’s anti-church measures—he left Cuba and entered the service of the Archdiocese of Miami, Florida. Although he initially continued to serve as a Salesian priest, he later left the order and continued his priestly ministry as a diocesan priest.
His first known assignment in the United States was in 1962 at Holy Rosary Parish (Perrine) in Florida, where he served as an assistant pastor. The following year, he became an assistant pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Miami, and in 1963, he was entrusted with the leadership of the Florida City Camp for Cuban Children. This camp provided care and pastoral support for refugee children from Cuba, so Sághy was directly involved in one of the most important aid programs for the Cuban émigré community.
In the second half of the 1960s, he served as an assistant pastor at St. Jerome Parish in Fort Lauderdale, and in 1969 he became an assistant pastor at St. John the Apostle Parish in Hialeah. That same year, he was appointed administrator of St. Margaret Parish in Clewiston and its branches. At these posts, he primarily provided pastoral care to Spanish-speaking parishioners and agricultural workers.
From the mid-1970s, he served as pastor of St. Philip Benizi Parish (Belle Glade). The parish was one of the most important Catholic communities for seasonal workers in Florida’s sugarcane region, where special emphasis was placed on ministering to Latin American parishioners. The diocesan press of the time regularly mentioned him as the parish’s leader.
From the 1980s onward, he worked in Hallandale, and in 1992 he also served in Fort Pierce. He dedicated his entire priestly life to serving Cuban immigrants, Spanish-speaking Catholic communities, and missionary pastoral work in Florida.
He passed away in Miami on September 19, 1996, on his eighty-second birthday.