St. Stephen of Hungary
414 East 82nd Street
With St. Stephen of Hungary we depart from “Spanish Harlem” and enter old Yorkville or, nowadays, the gentrified “Upper East Side.” A neighborhood that as recently as the early 1980’s contained a treasure trove of German, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak churches, shops and restaurants – although even by that decade most of the old time residents had left. Now, except for one or two restaurants, only the churches survive.
St. Stephen of Hungary parish began in 1902 in the basement of the (still-existing) St. Stanislaus church. In 1905 it acquired a former Protestant church of East 14th street. By 1914 the congregation numbered 4000 Hungarians. Like the Slovak congregations of St. John Nepomucene and St Elizabeth of Hungary – Slovakia then being part of Hungary – the parish subsequently migrated to Yorkville. A new church was begun in 1927 and completed in 1928. Like the churches of St. Lucy or Corpus Christi, it was a combination school, church and community center. In 1922 the Franciscans had taken over direction of the parish. The consecration of the church in 1928 by Cardinal Hayes was an important Hungarian national manifestation – over 10,000 were in attendance.
From that time forward St Stephen soldiered on as an important center of Hungarian culture and religious life in New York. But already by the 1940’s the congregation was an increasingly composed of non-Hungarians (predominantly Irish-American) – the girls’ choir of the school won awards in that decade for singing in English and Gaelic! Certainly the pastors since that time were also mainly Irish. Further waves of immigration after the Second World War did reinforce the Hungarian element, and St Stephen’s remained a focal point of Hungarian culture. In 1974 the heroic Cardinal Mindszenty celebrated mass here one year before his death. 1)
Despite all this, the number of Hungarian speakers dwindled further even as the average income within the bounds of the parish drastically increased. According to the parish website only one mass on Sunday is now n Hungarian (although my personal experience of just week ago suggests that this is not entirely accurate.2)
By 2009 Stephen’s parochial school was in crisis with just 150 students. It attracted considerable favorable media attention by 2012 with its alleged success repositioning itself to cater to the educational needs of the current (affluent) inhabitants of the neighborhood of St. Stephen’s. Basically the school was trying to break with what had become the predominant model for the parochial schools of Manhattan: basically, the providing of poor relief. The entire discussion, conducted in completely secular terms, reveals how deeply eroded the mission of this parochial school – originally national and religious – had become. It also reveals the inability of the parish and school to adapt to changes in the neighborhood – a problem shared by many other parishes and by the Archdiocese as a whole. 3)
The façade of St Stephen’s is more that of a school than of a church. Yet the effect, with its Romanesque revival decoration and “Boys”” and “Girls'” entrances, is nevertheless very pleasing. So is the church – as in all such church/ school complexes, basically an auditorium. That of St. Stephen’s is much more spartanly decorated than most – has the strong influence of the Hungarian reformation penetrated even here and overcome the national baroque traditions? Upon closer examination the sparse decorative elements – like the non-figurative glass with a host of sometimes enigmatic symbols- are attractive in their way. A drastic conciliar “updating”of the sanctuary has not helped. But all is maintained in very fine condition.
(Above) St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Finally, the dominant artwork in the church is a large stained glass window of St Stephen in the sanctuary. St. Stephen, who converted Hungary to Christianity, places the crown of Hungary before God and at the foot of the Madonna – the window also is surrounded by images of the saints of Hungary. Is it not strange? – if the Archdiocese has its way, within just a couple of years the churches of St Stephen of Hungary, St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Emeric – all the parishes in Manhattan dedicated to saints of Hungarian origin – will have been shuttered. The saints of these churches testify to an age where not just individuals but an entire nation could be consecrated publicly to Christ. That created a bond that survived the many vicissitudes of the Hungarian nation: the Mongols, the Turks, the First World War, the Soviets…. It is why thinkers like Thomas Molnar could never accept the liberal ideology of the separation of church and state. In our time we have seen the last gasps of that dying era, the age of Christendom.
St Stephen of Hungary parish is now scheduled to close. A pall hangs over the parish. The fate of the school is uncertain. Here in New York, the closing and sale of so many churches accompanying the retreat of the Church into a private suburban cult witness to a “new age” antithetical to that of Christendom. Can we nevertheless turn to the founders of the now-vanished age of Christendom – like St Stephen – for guidance in navigating the new era of established unbelief?
1) See generally: St. Stephen of Hungary Parish New York City 1902 – 2002 (St Stephen of Hungary Church, New York, NY, 1979 (sic)); http://www.nycago.org/organs/nyc/html/StStephenHungary.html;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen_of_Hungary_Church_(New_York_City).
2) http://www.ssh-nyc.org/worship/schedule.html
3) Anderson, Jenny, To Survive, a Catholic School Retools for a Wealthier Market (The New York Times, 8/19/2012; Curanaj, Linda, Struggling Catholic School turns things Around (MYFOX.COM 9/07/2012; 9/11/2012)
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