Medence, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Mideanîțea (Мідяниця), Ukraine — December 15, 1867
Death data:
Pueblo, CO, USA — February 17, 1923
Denomination:
ortodox
previously: Greek Catholic (1904-ig)
Ecclesiastical status:
diocesan
Diocese / Order:
Munkács
Ordination level:
priest
Priestly ordination:
Munkács, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, currently Mukacsevo (Мукачево), Ukraine — 1891
Place of burial:
Riverside Cemetery
Denver, CO, USA
Biographical data
A Greek Catholic priest from Munkács, he was a member of the pioneering generation of Hungarian and Rusyn Greek Catholic pastors in the United States. From the 1890s onward, he served in Greek Catholic mining communities in Pennsylvania and Colorado, and later—presumably—converted to the Orthodox Church. His father was Sándor Seregélly, a Greek Catholic priest, and his mother was Mária Legény. He completed his theological studies at the seminary in Uzhhorod. János Pásztélyi Kovács, Bishop of Munkács, ordained him a priest on September 28, 1892. His first assignment was in his native village, Medence, where he served as a temporary pastor from 1891 to 1892; he then became the parish priest of nearby Csillagfalva (Ung County) from 1892 to 1896. During the great wave of emigration preceding the turn of the century, he left for the United States in 1896, where he was among the first priests of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Munkács to undertake pastoral ministry among immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. His first posting in the United States was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. At that time, the city was considered one of the most important centers for Rusyn and Hungarian Greek Catholics in the United States, where the community was organized around St. Mary’s Parish. In 1897, he was assigned to the Greek Catholic faithful in Munhall (Homestead), Pennsylvania. At that time, a significant number of Hungarian and Rusyn workers lived in the steel-industry towns around Pittsburgh, and organizing pastoral care for them was a major undertaking. In 1899, he was transferred to the state of Colorado. He ministered first to the Greek Catholic faithful in Globeville (a northern suburb of Denver) and later in Pueblo. At the turn of the century, Globeville was one of the centers of Colorado’s metallurgical and mining industries, where a significant community of Hungarian, Rusyn, and Slovak immigrants had settled. One of the most important summaries of church history from that era, *The History of the Greek Catholic Priesthood of Bereg County*, lists as early as around 1900, among the priests of the Munkács Diocese serving in America, “Miklós Seregélly, Globewille, Colo.” as his place of ministry, which serves as an independent source confirming his ministry in Colorado. During his years in Colorado, he primarily provided pastoral care to miners, smelter workers, and their families. At that time, the Greek Catholic communities in the region were still in the process of organizing, and priests often traveled hundreds of kilometers to minister to the scattered faithful. After 1904, his name gradually disappeared from the Greek Catholic directories of Munkács and the United States. Only fragmentary information has survived regarding his later life. Several American sources suggest that he later left the Greek Catholic Church and joined the Orthodox Church, although the exact date and circumstances of this are currently unknown. According to available records, he was laid to rest in a Roman Catholic cemetery toward the end of his life. He died on February 17, 1923, in Colorado. His wife was Erzsébet Legza, who passed away in 1917. Their known child was Erzsébet, who married Miklós Baltovics, a Greek Catholic priest.
Seregélly Miklós: 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=988 (accessed: 2026-09-13).
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