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Juraj Gabura

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Juraj Gabura
Juraj Gabura
Akvinas Juraj Gabura in his centenarian years.
Birth: 17 January 1915
Veľký Bysterec, Žilina Region, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia)
Death: 29 March 2019
Dunajská Lužná, Bratislava Region, Slovakia
Age: 104 years, 71 days
Country: SlovakiaSVK
Centenarian

Akvinas Mária Juraj Gabura OP, civil name Juraj Gabura (17 January 1915 – 29 March 2019) was a Slovak Roman Catholic priest and Dominican friar. At the time of his death, he was the oldest priest, friar, and political prisoner in Slovakia. He is considered the founder ("father and pillar") of the Slovak province of the Dominicans. He was also the oldest known living man in Slovakia at the time of his death.

Biography[]

Childhood and education[]

Juraj Gabura was born in Veľký Bysterec, Žilina Region, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia), on 17 January 1915, as the second child of his father Jozef Gabura, a railwayman and train driver at that time fighting as a naval soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, and his mother Mária née Karasová. In 1920 (when he was 5 years old) his mother died of the Spanish flu. After his mother's death, the children were taken care of by her sister Emília, who later married Jozef Gabura. From 1920 he attended school in Kraľovany for 4 years and, because he was not yet 10 years old to enter grammar school, he attended a middle school in Námestovo for one year (there he lived with his godfather, the Námestovo parish priest Vendelín Schwarz). He first attended the Czechoslovak State Real Gymnasium of Tomáš Červeň in Nitra for 2 years (during his studies he lived in the bishop's boarding house, which his godfather, Vendelín Schwarz, arranged for him) and, after the family moved to Bratislava in 1927, he attended the Masaryk State Real Gymnasium (Grösslingová), where he graduated in 1933. During his studies, he attended Holy Mass every day and was already interested in religious life.

Monk and priest[]

On 28 September 1933, Juraj entered the novitiate in the Olomouc Dominican monastery and took the religious name Akvinas Mária. On 29 September 1934, he made his first vows, and on 29 September 1937, his lifelong vows. On 5 July 1939, Olomouc Archbishop Leopold Prečan ordained him a priest in Olomouc.

He remained in Olomouc until 15 August 1940, when he began working in the newly formed group of Dominicans in Trenčín as the administrator of the Curacy of St. Anne. In Trenčín, he led missions, spiritual exercises, worked with youth, and founded a student and worker group under the influence of the movement of Professor Tomislav Kolaković. The Trenčín Dominicans lived in the curacy house, but it collapsed as a result of a grenade explosion on 9 April 1945, so they temporarily moved to the premises of the School Sisters of Notre Dame until they bought a two-story house near the original curacy house. At that time, however, several religious left for Košice, and only three, including Akvinas, remained in Trenčín.

In January 1941, he co-founded the spiritual magazine Smer, of which he was co-editor from 1942 and editor-in-chief from 1946. Akvinas was active in literature: he translated from French and Latin, published spiritual articles and theological reflections, and also published several poems under the pseudonym Anjelov. However, after the last issue of the magazine in October 1948, its publication was banned by the state.

The Dominicans were forced to leave Trenčín under the influence of oppression by the communist authorities, only Akvinas remained, who found a sublet here and managed the Curacy from there. On 12 November 1949, he was transferred to Košice, where he became the superior of the Dominican convent.

Communist regime[]

As one of the few monks not interned in a concentration monastery during Action K (April 13-14, 1950), because he was traveling on a train from Košice to Trenčín that very night, he began to hide gradually in Trenčín, Podsuchá, Liptovská Štiavnica, Martinček, Dolný Kubín, Medzibrodí nad Oravou and finally in Dlhá nad Oravou, where he was hiding shortly before his arrest. On 16 August 1952, he learned that members of the White Legion who were in danger of their lives wanted to confess, and he confessed to them, but their hiding place was revealed, as was the name of the priest who confessed them. The family that was hiding him was arrested, their children were expelled from school, and Brother Akvinas went to turn himself in at Oravský Podzámek to save them. He was subsequently cruelly interrogated in Ružomberok and unjustly sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged treason at a monster trial on 22 November 1952 in Dolny Kubín. His sentence was later commuted to 25 years. He was initially imprisoned in Žilina, later in Ilava and Leopoldov, and from 1957 in Valdice. In prison, he also met important figures such as Gustáv Husák, bishops Ján Vojtaššák, Pavol Petr Gojdič, Vasiľ Hopek and Dean Josef Steinhübl.

After President Novotný's amnesty in 1960, Akvinas (although still under the surveillance of the State Security) was released and moved in with his sister in Bratislava. He worked as a bricklayer's assistant and later as a worker in a plumbing warehouse.

At that time, he secretly carried out extensive apostolic activity in Bratislava (he administered the sacraments, taught religion, organized clubs), which is why he is sometimes referred to as the "Apostle of Bratislava". In 1962, he founded the Slovak Brotherhood of the Lay People of Saint Dominic. He also organized the education of new members of the order, for whom he also translated and reproduced study materials. On 20 January 1978, he became the secret superior of the Slovak Vicariate of the Czech Dominican Province. His merit is the renewal of the Dominican order in Slovakia in illegality, including the Tertiary and Rosary brotherhoods.

After the fall of the communist regime[]

After the Church was allowed to operate freely again after 1989, Akvinas began to restore the monasteries that had been returned to the Order and to found new ones. First, he founded a novitiate and a clerical order in the returned monastery in Košice. He founded a new monastery in Zvolen, where the novitiate was subsequently moved. He also contributed to building a community in Dunajská Lužná.

He lived in the Zvolen convent since 2009. Until approximately 2014, he still celebrated Holy Mass himself. During his stay in Zvolen, he was the oldest resident of the city.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, on 17 January 2015, Cardinal Dominik Duka OP visited him in Zvolen, where he celebrated a solemn Holy Mass. During the Mass, the rector of the Pontifical Academy, Konštanc Adam OP, read him a blessing from Pope Francis and a letter from the superior general of the order, Bruno Cadoré OP. On this day, Cardinal Duka also blessed a memorial plaque commemorating the activities of the Trenčín Dominicans in the years 1939–1949, among whom Akvinas also served.

Since 1 November 2017, he lived in the community in Dunajská Lužná.

On 26 January 2018, following the death of 104-year-old Jozef Lukovič, he became the oldest known living man in Slovakia.

Akvinas Juraj Gabura died in Dunajská Lužná, Bratislava Region, Slovakia, on 29 March 2019 at around 11:00 p.m. at the age of 104 years, 71 days. His funeral took place in Zvolen on 6 April 2019, and was attended by a large number of Dominicans from the Slovak province, as well as Cardinal Dominik Duka OP, Archbishop Ján Orosch, Bishops Tomáš Galis and Jozef Haľko, who led the funeral rites, and many others. Akvinas was buried in the Zvolen cemetery in the Zlatý potok section. Following his death, then 101-year-old František Boháčik became the oldest known living man in Slovakia.

References[]


Slovakia's Oldest Living Man Titleholders (V • E)

Dezider Pal • Jan Strisovsky • Stefan Novotny • Michal Kruzic • Anton Dobrota • Jozef Daniska • Anton Kunik • Rudolf Kosa • Jozef Lukovic • Juraj Gabura • Frantisek Bohacik • Jan Palovsky • Jozef Krizek • Frantisek Marek • Jan Slavik

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