Szántó, István (Arator)

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SZÁNTÓ, ISTVÁN (ARATOR)

Hungarian missionary, religious writer; b. Györ, 1541; d. Olmütz, 1612. After his early education in Vienna, the bishop of Györ sent him in 1560 to the German College in Rome, where he entered the Society of Jesus. As a result of his initiative, a Hungarian college under Jesuit direction was established in Rome and subsequently became amalgamated with the German college under the name of Collegium Germanicum-Hungaricum. In 1579 Gregory XIII sent Szántó together with other Jesuits to work for the Catholic reform in Erdély (Transylvania). Though successful in many respects, Szántó was unable to prevent the expulsion of the Jesuits from Transylvania and was forced to move to northern Hungary in 1600 and finally to Olmütz, Austria. Here he worked until his death on the Magyar translation of the Bible. Unfortunately, most of his manuscripts were lost. Szántó wrote the Hungarian part of the great dictionary of Calepino.

Bibliography: v. fraknÓi, "Egy magyar jezsuita a XVI században" Katolikus Szemle (Budapest 1888). j. szinnyei, Magyar irók, 14 v. (Budapest 18911914) v.1. a. steinhuber, Geschichte des Collegium Germanicum-Hungaricum, 2 v. (Freiburg 1906) v.1.

[g. c. paikert]