Miracle in Budapest

Miracle in Budapest

A few days before Christmas of 1956 in Communist-occupied Hungary, a marvellous miracle took place.

The testimony about it was recorded by a Fr. Norbert, a priest of the parish in Budapest where it occurred.

Gertrude was a zealous Communist who was an elementary teacher in a girls’ school. She made it her mission to destroy her pupils’ Catholic faith, and missed no opportunity to either mock their belief, or to indoctrinate them in Marxist propaganda.

One particular pupil, Angela, an intelligent, devout little leader, asked Fr Norbert to let her receive Holy Communion daily during advent to help her bear up under her teacher’s constant persecution.

“She will persecute you worse,” Fr. Norbert warned, but the ten-year-old insisted she needed Jesus more than ever. And sure enough, from that day, sensing something different, Gertrude began a veritable psychological torture campaign.

On December 17, the militant teacher planned another ploy against what she termed “ancient superstitions infesting the school”. In a sweet voice, she began to question the children, promoting atheistic materialism, arguing that things only exist that can be seen and touched.

To illustrate her point, she asked Angela to step out of the classroom.

Then she had the whole class call to her in unison - “Angela, come in!”.

Angela entered, intrigued, but suspecting a trap.

“You see, girls,” declared Gertrude, “because Angela is a living person, someone we can see, hear and touch, when we call her, she hears us and responds. But suppose…we were to call the Infant Jesus, in whom some of you seem to believe…do you think He would hear you?”

There was a moment of silence. Then some voices timidly said, “Yes we do!”

“What about you, Angela”, asked the teacher.

Now Angela understood. She expected a trap, but not one so mean. She bravely answered with ardent faith: “Yes! I do believe that He hears me!”

Now Gertrude the atheist laughed aloud and maliciously.

Then, turning to the class, she mocked: “OK then, call Him!”

There was a hush. The Communist’s arguments had not been totally ineffective.

Then suddenly, Angela rushed to the front of the class, her eyes glistening, and facing her classmates she shouted - “Listen girls, we are going to call Him! Let’s all call together: ‘come, Infant Jesus’!”

All the girls sprang to their feet and began repeating: “Come, Infant Jesus! come, Infant Jesus…”

Gertrude was startled. She had not expected this reaction.

But the girls continued. There was now an aura of expectant hope around Angela, the little leader.

When anticipation was at a height, the classroom door opened soundlessly, an intense brightness shining there, then entering the classroom and gradually increasing like the light of a great, gentle fire. In the midst of this spectacle, a globe shone with an even clearer light.

As the girls and teacher watched, riveted to the floor, the globe opened up disclosing a gorgeous infant dressed in a brilliant tunic. His smile was ravishing, as the girls smiled back, in perfect peace and joy. Then, gently, the globe faded and disappeared through the door.

The children were still intently gazing in the direction of the door, when they were jolted back to reality by a sharp scream.

“He CAME!” Screamed the terrified schoolteacher, “He CAME….!!!” - as she fled down the hallway never to return.

Fr Norbert questioned the young girls one by one.

He attested under oath that he did not find the least contradiction in their accounts.

As for Gertrude, she was admitted to an asylum shortly afterwards.

The tremendous shock of the apparition affected her godless mind, and she was often heard repeating:

“He came! He came!”