Lajos Ordass

Lajos Ordass (1901–1978), born Lajos Wolf, was a Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Hungary. In 1944 he changed his name to Ordass, Hungarian for wolf, to protest the German occupation of Hungary.entry "Ordass, Lajos" in Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions. ed. Timothy Wengert. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, p. 563. Like Cardinal József Mindszenty, Bishop Ordass resisted communism in Hungary at great personal cost.{{Cite book|title=Egzházfő viharban és árnyékban: Ordass Lajos evangélikus hitvalló püspöki szolgálata (1945-1956)|last=Böröcz|first=Enikő|publisher=Luther Kiadó|year=2012|isbn=978-963-9979-66-6|location=Budapest|pages=}} He was convicted in a show trial and sentenced to two years in prison in 1948.{{Cite book|title=The Veil of God: The Testimony of Bishop Lajos Ordass in Communist Hungary|last=Fabiny|first=Tibor|publisher=Center for Hermeneutical Research|year=2008|isbn=978-963-87986-0-2|location=Budapest|pages=}} After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he was able to resume exercise of his bishop's office, but was removed a second time in 1958, living in forced retirement after that until his death in 1978.{{Cite book|title=The Struggle of Hungarian Lutherans under Communism|last=Baer|first=H. David|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1-58544-480-9|location=College Station|pages=14–26, 62–75}} Ordass was elected twice to be vice president of the Lutheran World Federation, in 1947 and 1957.{{Cite book|title=From Federation to Communion: The History of the Lutheran World Federation|last=Schjǿrring|first=Jens, et. al., ed.|publisher=Fortress Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8006-3110-2|location=Minneapolis|pages=30–31, 405–6, 410–11}} He was rehabilitated posthumously by the Hungarian state after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

==Biography==

Ordass was born to a German speaking family in the village of Savino Selo (Torschau - German / Torzsa - Hungarian).{{Cite book|title=He Could Not Do Otherwise: Bishop Lajos Ordass 1901-1978|last=Terray|first=László G.|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|year=1997|isbn=0-8028-4318-2|location=Grand Rapids, MI|pages=1–2}} Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa was settled in the late 18th century during the reign of Emperor Joseph II by German immigrants from Swabia. At that time Torschau was part of Austria-Hungary; today the village is located in Vojvodina, Serbia. Ordass' mother (Paula Steinmetz) was a native of Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa. Ordass' father (Arthur Wolf) moved to the village from Spišský / Szepesség, a region in modern Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Arthur Wolf was the cantor and music instructor for the Lutheran congregation in Savino Selo / Torschau / Torzsa. Lajos was the fifth of six children born to his parents.Lajos Ordass, Önéletrajzi írások, vol. 1. ed. István Szépfalusi. Bern: EPMSZ, 1985, pp. 11-13.