There are a lot of famous Jesuit saints, many of whom you know by just one name: Ignatius, Xavier, Canisius, Gonzaga, the list goes on. But there are countless holy Jesuits (and other Ignatian-inspired women and men of faith) whose incredible stories aren’t as well-known. Despite their lower profiles, their lives of heroic virtue can inspire us today as we seek to follow Christ more closely. So we asked the writer Meg Hunter-Kilmer to introduce us to 10 of these “friends of Ignatius.”
Hunter-Kilmer is a renowned American Catholic writer whose work on saints has been featured in her books “Saints Around the World” and “Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness.” She picked 10 women and men from the wide Ignatian family whose causes for sainthood have officially been opened.
Each essay in this series, which will run monthly, is accompanied by an original artwork of the featured friend of Ignatius.
István Kaszap
István Kaszap (Hungary, 1916-1935) could have been a dropout. As a small child he’d been so defiant that his parents had to threaten to call the police to force him to go to school. Later his grades were so bad that he’d been on the verge of failing out of high school.
István Kaszap could have been a criminal. As a child, his temper was so out of control that his mother nearly despaired. When his two older brothers teased him, he would fly into a rage, becoming aggressive and throwing whatever he could get his hands on. His parents worried what would become of this stubborn, violent child.
István Kaszap could have been an Olympian. Though he’d only started training as a gymnast during his junior year of high school, he was a regional champion before he graduated, even taking first at a national event.
But what István Kaszap wanted most of all was to be a priest. Upon realizing that his academic performance would make that impossible, he hunkered down. He took the stubbornness that had made school so hard for him and applied it to being an excellent student. Though he failed his art class in the first semester of his sophomore year and was near failing in math and Latin, the next semester he had no Ds or Fs. The following year, the boy who had previously gone several semesters with no As had only two Bs — the rest were As. This was on top of his astonishing gymnastics performance and his leadership in his scout troop.
István’s character was developing as well. Despite his great success, he was profoundly humble, to the point that a teacher warned him that he was thinking too little of himself. He served Mass whenever possible, read all the books that he had skipped early in his high school career, and studied Spanish and Italian in addition to the required French, Latin and Hungarian. He began to develop a love of solitude, spending hours and even days bicycling around the country, including a five-day solo trip to the 4th World Scout Jamboree held in Gödöllő in 1933.
Despite his early academic failures, István had always been quite bright. In fact, it was his intelligence that had hampered his performance in school. István was fascinated by art, literature, language and music, among many other subjects. His journals provide a window into the mind of an intellectual with an insatiable curiosity. It was just that he didn’t want to study what he was told to study. But when his ability to study for the priesthood hinged on it, István buckled down. This was more than an attempt to avoid consequences, though; István’s journal shows that he had really come to understand the importance of doing his duty as a student. “It was God’s voice that guided me in my studies,” he wrote, “and helped me to carry them out with dedication.” (“The Young Stephen Kaszap, Servant of God,” Jenő Bóday, SJ)
And then there was gymnastics. Though he came late to the sport, István had remarkable natural talent. Only a year and a half into his gymnastics career, he was district champion, winning gold in the parallel bars, high bar and (oddly to us) horseback racing. But while he showed great promise for future success, István wasn’t interested in such success. He wrote in his journal, “The joy of the heart is a fragile and delicate flower which can easily be damaged and destroyed by money, poisoned by celebrity, anesthetized by pleasure, but it can bloom to beauty in the noble-spirited, those in whom the only ideal and purpose is the most holy: God the Eternal” (“The Young Stephen Kaszap, Servant of God,” Jenő Bóday, SJ). So István chose to leave behind his many academic and athletic interests and seek Jesus alone. He entered the Jesuit novitiate, where his intense dedication was focused entirely on growth in holiness.
István spent less than 18 months as a Jesuit before illness forced him to return home. In all that time, his joyful commitment to his vocation never wavered. One of his Jesuit brothers noted, “The will of God always held him captive, making him always peaceful and smiling, and his whole personality reflected a well-balanced, pleasant individual” (“The Young Stephen Kaszap, Servant of God,” Jenő Bóday, SJ). But illness plagued him, starting the day after he entered the Society of Jesus. His hoarseness was followed by tonsillitis, abscesses, pleurisy and nosebleeds. When he was finally taken to the hospital eight months after entering the Society, the doctors told him there was no hope for him. That was March of 1935 — exactly one year after he had been declared a junior gymnastics champion.
István persevered in the novitiate, hoping that the doctor was wrong. His confreres were astonished at the joy and peace with which he suffered, even when he was told eight months later that he would have to leave the Society. The hope was that he would return home to convalesce and would eventually come back to make his vows and be ordained. Instead, István just got sicker after his November 3 return home. He was in and out of the hospital, finally being admitted and given an emergency tracheotomy, which robbed him of his voice.
As death approached, István thought only of going to meet Jesus. Finally, he wrote a note to his nurse: “I cannot make my confession, but I request absolution for I am repentant. I cannot take Communion either because I cannot swallow. I would like the last rites.” He underlined the last sentence, indicating an urgency that sent his nurse out into the cold in search of a priest. By the time she returned 15 minutes later, István was unconscious. Beside him lay his final message, a note reflecting his own joy and his selfless desire to console his grieving loved ones: “God be with you! We will meet in Heaven! Do not weep, this is my birthday in Heaven. God bless you all!” (“The Young Stephen Kaszap, Servant of God,” Jenő Bóday, SJ).
István left behind copious personal writings in the form of the journals he kept for many years. These writings have served to inspire generations of Hungarian youth; English excerpts offer the same inspiration to those of us who look at the life of this talented, intelligent, stubborn, willful young man and wonder: Could I do the same? Could I live entirely for Jesus, in the midst of my schoolwork and athletic pursuits and ordinary, everyday life? Could I look at a world that offers me everything and choose Jesus instead? Through the intercession of Venerable István Kaszap, may we be given the grace to say yes — again and again and again.
