On 12 June 1915, Cardinal József Mindszenty was ordained to the priesthood in Csehimindszent, Austria-Hungary. Until 1941, he was known as József Pehm, but had adopted Mindszenty in honor of the village in which he was born.

Cardinal Mindszenty will spend much of his priesthood and religious life under the the persecution of the Nazis under Hitler and then under the persecution of the Communists after the end of the Second World War. On 8 February 1949, the Communist government of Hungary would sentence Cardinal Mindszenty to life imprisonment for treason after extracting from him a forced confession. On 12 February 1949, Pope Pius XII excommunicated anyone who had participated in the trial and conviction of the Cardinal.

On 30 October 1956, Cardinal Mindszenty would be released during the Hungarian Uprising. After the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to suppress the uprising, Mindszenty would seek asylum in the United States Embassy for fifteen years. On 28 September 1971, an agreement with Pope Paul VI led the Hungarian government to allow Mindszenty to leave Hungary in exchange for a Vatican agreement to declare Mindszenty a “victim of history” instead of “communism” and removing the excommunication imposed by Pius XII. Mindszenty would spend the rest of his life in Vienna, Austria. Mindszenty’s strong anti-communist views would cause problems in his relationship with the Vatican at this time which believed friendlier relations with the Soviet Union would help reduce the persecution of Catholics in Communist countries.

On 6 May 1975, Cardinal Mindszenty died. In 1991, his remains were repatriated to Esztergom, Hungary and buried in the Estrergom Basilica. There is a cause for his canonization.

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