SERÉDI, GYÖRGY JUSTINIANUS. – Benedictine cardinal and Hungarian jurist, born at Deáki on 23 April 1884, died at Strigonia (Esztergom) on 29 March 1945. Having completed his secondary studies in great poverty, he was admitted among the novices of the archabbey of Pannonhalma. Later a student at the College of S. Anselmo in Rome, he was ordained a priest on 14 July 1908.
As soon as he had obtained his degree in theology, he was appointed professor at the Pontifical International Institute of S. Anselmo, and subsequently consultor to the Pontifical Commission for the Codification of Canon Law. After the 1914–18 war, he was appointed the first ecclesiastical counsellor of the Hungarian legation to the Holy See and professor at the Pontifical School of Archival Science and Palaeography. Cardinal Gasparri entrusted him with the task of editing the Fonti of the CIC; he was entirely responsible for the last three volumes, which earned him worldwide renown as a scholar. Pope Pius XI appointed him Archbishop of Strigonia on 30 November 1927 and, on 19 December of the same year, created him cardinal of the title of SS. Andrea and Gregorio al Monte Celio, personally consecrating him on 8 January 1928. He was doctor honoris causa in theology and canon law at the University of Pietro Pázmány in Budapest and in civil law at the University of Oxford.
SERBIA — The Virgin enthroned and an angel. Detail from the Adoration of the Magi, frescoed in the second half of the 14th century in the Monastery of Marko.
(courtesy of Dr. B. Degenhart)