Pro Cultura Christiana Prize Awarded to Artist György Reha
June 4, 2025
3,768
György Reha (L) with Bishop András Veres
The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (MKPK) awarded the Pro Cultura Christiana prize to artist György Reha, founding member of the Vajda Lajos Studio in Szentendre, and member of the Friends of Hungary Foundation. The award was presented by András Veres, Bishop of Győr, on June 3 in Budapest, reported Magyar Kurír. Archbishop Michael Wallace Banach, Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary was also present at the event. In his tribute to the award winner, András Veres emphasized that the MKPK created the Pro Cultura Christiana award to recognize the work of artists who have represented Gospel values at an outstanding level throughout their careers.
Among other things, this recognition also serves to highlight that there are artists in the world who, even in our modern age, are capable of creating works of art based on Christian values.
György Reha was born in Budapest in 1953. He was already involved in the visual arts in high school. A turning point in his artistic career came in 1971 when he met János Aknay. Together with the painter, who was later awarded the Kossuth Prize, and five of their colleagues, they founded the Vajda Lajos Studio in Szentendre in 1972.
Cardinal Péter Erdő, György Reha, Bishop András Veres. Photo: Magyar Kurír
In 2010, the idea took shape to establish a collection in the Diocese of Székesfehérvár (Central Hungary), founded by Bishop Antal Spányi, focusing on contemporary artists. The resulting Contemporary Art Collection has been organizing annual exhibitions as part of the Ars Sacra Festival since 2011. György Reha selected the exhibits for the Contemporary Art Collection from among the most outstanding works of Hungarian fine art. Most of the artists are members of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and several are recipients of the Kossuth and Munkácsy Mihály awards. A high-quality publication has also been produced about the exhibitions of the Contemporary Art Collection of the Diocese of Székesfehérvár.
The award winner thanked Bishop Antal Spányi for the opportunity to do the work he loves. Quoting Béla Hamvas, he emphasized that
the greatest thing a person can do is to bring joy, and the only right way to live is to bring joy to as many people as possible.
Related article
The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta in Africa Brings Help to Where the Wounds Are
Migrants do not necessarily want to leave their country. There are millions of them who want to stay at home and make a living there.Continue reading
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
