IZIDOR

GUZMICS (1786-1839)  , Hungarian theologian, was born on the 7th of April 1786 at Vamos-Csalad, in the county of Sopron . At Sopron (Oedenburg) he was instructed in the art of poetry by Paul Horvath . In October 1805 he entered the Benedictine order, but left it in August of the following year, only again to assume the monastic garb on the loth of November 1806 . At the monastery of Pannonhegy he applied himself to the study of Greek under Farkas Toth and in 1812 he was sent to Pesth to study theology . Here he read the best German and Hungarian authors, and took part in the editorship of the Nemzeti (National) Plutarkus, and in the translation of Johann Hiibner's Lexicon . On obtaining the degree of doctor of divinity in 1816, he returned to Pannonhegy, where he devoted himself to dogmatic theology and literature, and contributed largely to Hungarian periodicals . The most important of his theological works are: A kath. anyaszentegyhaznak hitbeli tanitasa (The Doctrinal Teaching of the Holy Catholic Church), and A keresztenyeknek valldsbeli egyesiilesokrol (On Religious Unity among Christians), both published at Pesth in 1822; also a Latin treatise entitled Theologia Christiana fundamentalis et theologia dogmatics (4 vols., Gyor, 1828-1829) . His translation of Theocritus in hexameters was published in 1824 . His versions of the Oedipus of Sophocles and of the Iphigenia of Euripides were rewarded by the Hungarian Academy, of which in 1838 he was elected honorary member . In 1832 he was appointed abbot of the wealthy Benedictine house at Bakonybel, a village in the county of Veszprem . There he built an asylum for 150 children, and founded a school of harmony and singing . He died on the 1st of September 1839 .