In Covenant with the Creator - Speech by Dr. Tamás Sulyok on the occasion of the renovation of the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany

"You are the descendents of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers" (Acts 3:25)
Your Excellency, 
Most Reverend Provost Father, 
Dear Benedictine Community!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Less than a decade after King Stephen offered his country to the Virgin Mary by offering to her the Holy Crown of the Land before his death, the Crown of Hungary was placed on the head of King Andrew. It became his responsibility to lead the Hungarian Kingdom, then only a few decades old, and to strengthen the historic alliance between Christianity and Hungary, between God and man – and give the nation hope and a future.

With love and respect, I welcome you all on the occasion of the blessing of the Royal Crypt of the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany and the completion of its restoration.
The venue of today's celebration, the Tihany Benedictine Abbey and its 11th century crypt, is a distinguished and sacred place in Hungary. It is a place of grace, the final resting place of our King Andrew I of the House of Árpád, where the bones of King Andrew and his son Prince David rest, as proven by scientific research.

The interior of the crypt has remained almost unchanged for almost a thousand years, as if time had stood still. These have been the same columns, the same stones, the same tomb - since the time of the foundation of the state. The same silence and the same lights have also remained. 
Everything here is a reminder of the beginning, of the early steps of our statehood, of the covenant with the Creator.

We descend the stairs, yet we feel elevated. We get a taste of the time of our country's founding and the wellspring of our culture. We return to the starting point of a thousand years and of forty generations. There are few better places to confront our history and ourselves.  In Tihany, every Hungarian is invited and given the opportunity to come here at least once in their life, to formulate their relationship to the nation and to strengthen their identity. 

Each one of us should reflect on the path of the Hungarian nation, and in the context of the future, declare what their personal responsibility is in their family, in their community, and towards themselves.
We will appreciate our country and our place in the world even more if we pay tribute to our ancestors and to all those who fought for Hungarian freedom, who built Hungarian culture, who dedicated their lives to the evangelisation of the lands of the Carpathian Basin, who worked for the well-being of their families for generations.

When Antonio Bonfini, as King Matthias' Italian historian, chronicled the history of our country half a thousand years ago, he found it important to note at the beginning of his massive work, The Tenths of Hungarian History, that „Here is situated also the Tihany Cape and peninsula, blessed with the most excellent abundance of fish and a splendid climate, but made even more fortunate and famous by the church founded by King Andrew”.

Indeed, there is probably no one who, even after visiting Lake Balaton countless times, would not spend a few minutes admiring its beautiful waters.

But if you enter the Benedictine Abbey, sit in the pews and then enter the crypt of King Andrew, you will see that, like the dazzling natural setting, the depths of the church also hold a treasure of unparalleled mystery, one that is unique and thought-provoking.
If we recall the 14 years of the reign of King Andrew in Hungary, who founded the church, we can see that his journey was marked by both internal and external wars, including anti-Christian pagan rebellion, the martyrdom of Bishop Gellert and his men, repeated invasions by the Holy Roman imperial armies, successfully repelled by the Hungarians. Bloody battles in Transdanubia, the Vértes Hills, the sinking of a foreign fleet of ships at Pozsony. As soon as peace with the Emperor was achieved, the Church trembled and the great schism between Rome and Constantinople occurred. But there was no peace at home, either, for the question of the succession to the Hungarian crown led to a fratricidal war in which King Andrew himself was killed.

Despite the perilous times, Andrew I had the strength to continue Stephen's work. As the son of the blinded Vazul, he heeded the exhortations that King Stephen had written to his son. 
He did not stop the physical and spiritual building works. He invited Benedictine monks to Tihany. In the 970-year-old founding charter of the abbey, which is our oldest written language memory, we can still read the many Hungarian words written down ten centuries ago.

Esteemed Guests and Audience!

The beginnings of statehood in Hungary are far away in time, but they are the foundations. And foundations are essential not only for the house, but also for the homeland.

In this foundation, we Hungarians defined ourselves as part of Europe, as a sovereign, Christian country. We did not submit to the East or the West. No matter how many times we were subdued, we always regained and recovered our freedom. We hold firmly to our language and culture. Yet, we have also adopted values from other cultures and approach them with respect. This is how Saint Aignan, the bishop of Orléans in France, became the patron saint of the Tihany Abbey. Our fundamental principle is that we have lived and continue to live together in peace with other nationalities—Slavs, Germans, and others.

We Hungarians have been at home from the Hargita Mountains to the Alps for a thousand years. For us, the two towers of Tihany are still a point of reference, just like the cross on top of the Holy Crown. And even if sometimes we search through fog or with uncertainty, we still want to follow the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. According to whose teachings King Stephen and King Andrew I set out at the beginning of our nation’s journey. Our thanks and gratitude goes to everyone who helps the Hungarian people in this endeavour! Special thanks to the Benedictine community of Tihany!

Thank you for your attention!

(Tihany, 22 March 2025)