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Juraj Gabura

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Juraj Gabura
Juraj Gabura
Birth: 17 January 1915
Velki Bisterec, Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovakia)
Death: 29 March 2019
Dunajska Luzna, Slovakia
Age: 104 years, 71 days
Country: SlovakiaSVK
Centenarian

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

Biography[]

Childhood and education[]

Juraj Gabura was born in Veliki Bisterc (Dolny Kubin), Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovakia) on 17 January 1915, as the second child of father Jozef Gabura, then a train driver and train driver who fought as a naval soldier of the Austro-Hungarian army, and mother Maria born Karasovej. In 1920 (when he was 5 years old), his mother died of the Spanish flu. After her mother's death, her sister Emilia, who later married Jozef Gabur, took care of the children. Since 1920 he attended school in Kralovani for 4 years, and since he was not yet 10 years old, he was able to attend high school, one year in a civic school in Namestovo (he lived there with his godfather, the parish priest of Namastov Vendelin Schwartz). In 1927 he moved to Bratislava, to Masaryk's State Real Gymnasium (Grosslingova), where he graduated in 1933. In Masaryk's high school, he was a classmate, e.g. Gustav Husak, Marija Kišonova-Hubova and Dezider Kardoš. 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 Dominican monastery in Olomouc and received the religious name Aquinas Maria. He took his first vows on 29 September 1934, and his lifelong vows on 29 September 1937. On 5 July 1939, Archbishop Leopold Prečan of Olomouc 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 Trencin as the administrator of Chicken St. Anni. In Trenčín he led missions, spiritual exercises, worked with young people and founded a student and working group under the influence of the movement of Professor Tomislav Kolaković. Dominicans from Trenčín lived in a chicken house, but it grew on 9 April 1945 as a result of a grenade explosion, so they temporarily moved to the premises of the School Sisters of Notre Dame until they bought a two-story house near the original chicken coop. At that time, however, several monks went to Košice, and only three remained in Trenčín, including Aquinas.

Under the influence of the oppression of the communist government, the Dominicans were forced to leave Trenčín, leaving only Aquinas, who found a tenant here and ruled the Kuraci from there. On 12 November 1949, he was transferred to Košice, where he became the head of the Dominican Convention.

January 1941 he is a co - founder of the spiritual magazine Smer, of which he had been a co - editor since 1942 and editor - in - chief since 1946. Father Aquinas was engaged in literature: he translated from French and Latin, published spiritual articles and theological reflections, and published several poems under the pseudonym Angels. However, after the last October issue of the magazine in 1948, its publication was banned by the state.

Communist regime[]

As one of the few monks, during the action K (13-14 April 1950), he was not interned in the concentration monastery, because that night he traveled by train from Košice to Trenčín. When he found out about the event, he gradually began to hide in Trenčín, Podsuča, Liptovska Štiavnica, Martinček, Donji Kubin, Medžibrodi nad Oravom and finally in Dlha nad Oravou, where he also hid just before his arrest. On 16 August 1952, he learned that the endangered members of the White Legion wanted to confess and confessed to them, but their hiding place and the name of the priest who confessed to them were discovered. The family that hid him was arrested, her children were expelled from school, and her brother Aquinas went to the Oravski Podzamek to save her. He was subsequently brutally interrogated in Ružomberok and unjustly sentenced to life in prison for alleged treason at the monster trial on 22 November 1952 in Donji Kubin. His sentence was later commuted to 25 years. He was originally imprisoned in Žilina, later in Ilava and Leopoldovo, and since 1957 in Valdice. In prison, he also met important personalities, such as Gustav Husak, Bishops Jan Vojtaššak, Pavel Petr Gojdič, Vasil Hopek and Dean Josef Steinhubl.

After the amnesty of President Novotny in 1960, his brother Aquinas (although still under the supervision of the State Security) was released and moved with his sister to Bratislava. He worked as a bricklayer's assistant and later as a warehouse worker.

At that time he was secretly engaged in extensive apostolic activity in Bratislava (he gave sacred secrets, taught religions, organized circles), which is why he is sometimes called the "Bratislava Apostle". In 1962, he founded the Slovak lay fraternity of St. Dominic. He also organized the training of new members of the order, to whom he also translated and multiplied teaching materials. In January 1978, he became the secret secretary of the Slovak Vicariate of the Czech Dominican Province. He is responsible for restoring the Dominican order in Slovakia illegally, including the Tertiary fraternities and the Rosary fraternities.

After the fall of the communist regime[]

After the Church was able to work freely again after 1989, Brother Aquinas began to rebuild the monasteries that had been returned to their ownership and to establish new ones. He first founded a novitiate and a clergyman in the renovated monastery in Košice. He founded a new monastery in Zvolen, where the novitiate later moved. He also contributed to the building of the community in Dunajska Lužna.

Since 2009, he had lived in the Zvolen Convention. Until about 2014, he continued to serve Holy Mass alone. During his stay in Zvolen, he was the oldest inhabitant of the city.

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of his brother Aquinas, on 17 January 2015, he was visited in Cardinal by Dominic Duke OP in Zvolen, who on this occasion served a solemn Holy Mass. During it, the rector of the Pontifical Academy, Constantine Adam OP, read him the blessing of Pope Francis and a letter from the General of the Order, Bruno Kadore OP. On this day, Cardinal Duka also blessed a memorial plaque in memory of the activities of the Trencin Dominicans in the period 1939-1949, including Brother Aquinas.

Since 1 November 2017, he had lived in the community in Dunajska Lužna.

Gabura died in Dunajska Luzna, Slovakia around 11:00 p.m. on 29 March 2019 at the age of 104 years, 71 days. His funeral was held in Zvolen on 6 April 2019 and was attended by Cardinal Dominik Duka OP, Archbishop Jan Oroš, Bishops Tomas Gališ and Jozef Halk, who conducted the funeral ceremonies, and many others. Brother Aquinas was buried in the Zvolen cemetery in the area of ​​Zlatni potok in Slovakia.

References[]


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

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

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