The Journey of Hungary’s Most Fragile National Relic

Starved, tortured, humiliated – the democratically elected leader of Hungarians in the former Czechoslovakia, János Esterházy, died in prison on March 8, 1957, as a political prisoner of the communist regime. The communist authorities threw his ashes into a mass grave and refused to hand over his modest personal possessions to his grieving family. Except for one, single item.

After his death in Mírov prison (today in Czechia), the prison authorities agreed to hand over his personal rosary to his wife, Lívia Serényi. Rolled into a wreath from cigarette paper, breadcrumbs, and threads of linen with his saliva, the rosary had served as his sole consolation among the horrors of the prison. The Hungarian politician’s transformation into a highly respected spiritual leader among the prison population has been well documented, former fellow prisoners later speaking out openly about the comfort and Christian fellowship they received from “Inmate 7832.” One of Esterházy’s contemporaries wrote that “in the past we used to pray for János, but now we wonder if we should pray to him instead.”

After his wife’s death, the fragile paper rosary was handed down to Esterházy’s daughter, Alice Esterházy-Malfatti, who still lives in Italy. She had subsequently donated the Hungarian politician’s personal possessions to Boldizsár Paulisz, the founder of the János Esterházy Pilgrimage Center in Slovakia. There it lay in a display cabinet for years, until our arrival in the museum in 2024.

The little paper wreath was in fairly poor shape, broken into three pieces, laying on the wooden base of the cabinet without support. As the item is of national importance not only to the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, but to all Hungarians, a decision was made to restore the rosary and create a safe environment for its long-term preservation.

We contacted one of Hungary’s top paper restoration workshops that handles the nation’s most precious documents and paper objects. The workshop and its leader, presumably out of genuine modesty, asked us not to identify them, but immediately agreed to receive the object. They offered to restore and preserve it free of charge, and also to create a modest frame that could house the rosary. We accepted their kind offer with gratitude.

The restoration was done with the help of students who have all grasped the national importance of the object they have been working on. An analysis has revealed that the rosary is made out of cigarette paper and other scrap paper, a few threads from some cloth available in the prison, and the beads of the rosary were made out of rolled breadcrumbs. Despite this, the little fragile object has survived for over seventy years.

The restoration was completed in the beginning of March, just in time for the János Esterházy Award. The Rákóczi Association, organizers of the award, kindly agreed for the relic to be displayed in Parliament right under the Speaker’s pulpit. There it lay during the award ceremony, when the former Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Dominik Duka, received the prestigious János Esterházy Prize. As the Hungarian politician died in a prison on the territory of today’s Czech Republic, thus being the symbol of the shared suffering of Hungarian, Czech, and Slovak political prisoners, it was fitting that it should be presented on a day when a Czech Cardinal was being recognized for his work, building bridges among Hungarians and Czechs.

To our delight, when we asked Cardinal Duka after the official award ceremony to bless the rosary, he agreed without any hesitation. The relic was held by Imre Molnár, our greatest expert on the life and work of János Esterházy. After the ceremony, we handed the rosary back to a representative of the Esterházy Pilgrimage Center, who informed us that instead of the display cabinet in the museum, in the future they intend to house the rosary in the nearby chapel.

Featured Image: Hungary Today