One Million People Praying

Our son Paul and his wife Kate visited us from Minnesota this past week. We had a great time visiting some of the sites in the area. While in Budapest we did the typical tourist thing and went to the Parliament, Heroes Square, Castle Hill and St. Steven's Basilica. But, we also did some exploring and we came across an interesting attraction.

As we were traveling on one of the trams along the Danube, we noticed some interesting buildings in the hillside across the river. It looked like a castle built into the hillside. We found the tram to take us across the river and discovered that what we saw was a chapel cave. The cave is called Gellért Hill Cave but is also know as St. Ivan's cave. According to legend, a hermit named Istvan healed the sick from the waters that sprang from the cave (the medicinal baths which are still used in the area are probably from these waters). Istvan was later canonized.

In 1924 a Pauline order was formed and used the cave as a church. Later a Pauline monastery was built alongside the cave and connected to it. This is the building that has the tower on the right side of the picture above.

The cave entrance

When communism took over the country the order was destroyed by the Hungarian secret police in 1951. The superior Ferenc Vezér was executed, and the other monks received 5-10 year prison sentences. Every entrance of the cave was sealed with concrete.

After the fall of communism in 1989, the cave was reopened and serves as a church today. There are about 10 friars serving in the monastery at this time.

Inside the cave

The chapel

It was very interesting to see the cave and to hear its history, especially of the persecution they faced in the 1950's. What really struck me, though, was the plaque at the entrance of the cave. It reads (in my best translation), "If there would be one million Hungarian pray-ers, I would not be afraid of the future." Just imagine what would happen if one million Hungarians (or Americans, French, Germans, etc., etc.) would really seek God in prayer. What would happen to our countries? What would happen to the world? Maybe we would actually see II Chronicles 7:14 come to pass! Maybe we would see a real revival!