Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has sent a letter of condolence following the death of Placid Oloffson, a Benedictine monk who spent nine years in a Soviet prison camp.
The prime minister addressed his letter to Archabbot Asztrik Várszegi of Pannonhalma. Born Karoly Olofsson, Father Placid died at the age of 101 on Sunday evening.
He was arrested in 1946 by the infamous Hungarian secret policy, the ÁVH, then transferred to the Soviet authorities, which finally sentenced him to ten years in a Gulag camp under trumped-up “terrorism” charges.
PM Orbán wrote in the letter that “a true representative of Hungarian freedom and European Christian culture has passed away. During his one hundred years, he bravely demonstrated that there is freedom where the spirit of God is present: in church and the classroom just as in prison and the forced labor camp.”
On October 23, 2016 he was decorated by the prime minister with the Hungarian Order of Honor, a prestigious state award that only four have received so far.