President decorated Hungarian heroes: Karikó, Szilágyi, Böjte

“A nation needs heroes. Examples to be followed, with whom we speak the same language, share a history, people who are like us, still better than we are,” President Katalin Novák said at a ceremony marking Hungary’s August 20 national holiday on Sunday.

At the ceremony, the president handed over the Saint Stephen Order of Hungary to biologist Katalin Karikó, and three times Olympic Champion fencer Áron Szilágyi, and the Legion of Honour of Hungary to Franciscan friar Csaba Böjte. In her laudation, the president said all three awardees held their Hungarian identity in high esteem, they were working for their communities, “considering their work as service”. “All three of them are compassionate, they share a commitment to the family, and they also share the principle of one for all,” Novák said.

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Referring to Karikó, the president highlighted her outstanding scientific career “promoting Hungary and Hungarian science all over the world” with special regard to “several decades of perseverance in medical research”. Szilágyi has been recognised for his exceptional sports career and for supporting young talents, as well as “being an example of sportsmanship and consistency”, Novák said.

Concerning Böjte, the president praised his humanitarian activities through founding and operating an orphanage for Romania’s needy children, and “serving the cause of the spiritual reinforcement of the Hungarian nation through the commitment of the youngest brother”.

President Novák: St. Stephen ‘common denominator’ for Hungarians

Saint Stephen, Hungary’s first king, is “a common denominator for all Hungarians”, President Katalin Novák said in her address at a ceremony marking the August 20 national holiday. Speaking in Esztergom, north of Budapest, the president said “St. Stephen has become an integral part of each of us; he is with us”. Stephen I “laid the foundations for a Christian Hungary and made the country a part of the western world,” she said, adding that at the same time the sainted king “inevitable earned a place in our life, too”.