(1896 Csíkszentdomokos - 1980 Gyulafehérvár)

Csíkszentdomokos is situated in the valley of the Olt River, at the foot of the Eastern Carpathians. It was annexed to Romania in 1920. Bishop Áron came from that profoundly religious Sekler community deep in Transylvania.

He was the third-born child of peasant parents. He attended schools in his village, in Csíksomlyó, Csíkszereda and Gyulafehérvár. Barely had he graduated from high-school, when he was called up for military service. He served on three fronts, and was wounded four times. Having joined up as a private, he was demobbed as a lieutenant. In April 1919 he was taken prisoner by the Romanians. For a short while he was imprisoned in the castle of Brassó.

As a young seminarian he always worked in the fields with his parents during his summer holidays.

˝He never shied away from walking through his village in his cassock with a scythe on his shoulder˝ - recalled his father with pride. Bishop Mailáth ordained him in 1924. For over a decade he worked as a minister, teacher, organizer of cultural associations and editing cultural and educational reviews.

Pope Pius XI appointed Áron Márton to the bishopric of Transylvania on Christmas Eve of 1938. At his investiture as Bishop of Transylvania he took an oath for the mutual acceptance and appreciation of the various peoples and their religion in the region.

˝Three languages are spoken in Transylvania, and the Lord is worshipped according to six or seven rites... I pledge to take these historic particulars into consideration.˝  In 1940, due to the Second Vienna Award, his diocese was split. Áron Márton chose to stay at his seat in Gyulafehérvár in the Romanian part, but he took care of the majority of his flock that now belonged to Hungary. In 1944 he happened to arrive at Kolozsvár, just when its Jewish citizens, by then already marked with the Star of David, were being driven into transit camps and thence deported to labour and extermination camps. While conducting the consecration of new priests in St. Michael´s church on May 18, Bishop Áron raised his voice before the crowd against racial discrimination and the persecution of Jews. He asked his flock to help the persecuted, and in a letter he called on the Hungarian government immediately to stop the deportations.

˝I consider it my human, Christian and Hungarian duty before returning home, to ask with love and in God´s name the authorities in charge to prevent the inhumanities, or if they are not capable of doing so, not to collaborate in the actions aimed at exterminating thousands of people.˝ (May 22, 1944)

After the lost war, Áron Márton became the spokesperson for Transylvanian Hungarians hoping for a fairer peace.

˝We mustn´t leave this land, for it belongs to us. We are not strangers here, we feel at home here, even if this displeases some people.˝  Áron Márton manifested strong resistance against the Communist Romanian government´s measures. He stood up for his Uniate brethren, and chose to reject state support for the Church, rather than having to submit to the blackmail of the powers that be. By 1949 he became too much of an inconvenience for the Communist terror system. Summoned by the Romanian Minister for Culture to appear in Bucharest on June 21, 1949 on the pretext of discussing the legal position of the Catholic Church, he was arrested along the way by a ruse. He was arraigned before a military tribunal. Accused of treason and sedition, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. For a long time they kept him under appalling circumstances, shackled, in underground cellars.

˝I most resolutely declare that I did not take part in any conspiracy or anti-government movement … The second charge, according to which in the course of the peace negotiations I suggested a border-agreement, whereby more than a million of my Hungarian brethren living in Romania could return to the Hungarian linguistic community, is accurate and I accept responsibility for this. What is more, I ask the Bench to take into consideration that I was the initiator, and the responsibility lies entirely with me.˝  (July 1951.) In 1954 Bucharest indicated that the bishop would be released. However, Áron Márton accepted his release only if no conditions were attached to it. Eventually they did release him after all. In the spring of 1955 he once again undertook leadership of his archdiocese. However, after another two years he once again became intolerable for the authorities. This time they confined him to his residence from 1957 to 1967. During the time of his house arrest he was surrounded by listening devices. His guard dogs were regularly poisoned. He was even shot at once, but the bullet luckily missed him. Not once did he violate his house arrest. The authorities frequently offered compromises, attaching conditions to his freedom. Yet he refused every deal. 

˝I do not recognize any haggling as far as God´s laws and matters of the Church are concerned˝- he said. Each Sunday he met his flock, who gathered from all parts of the diocese to see him and listen to him. His encouraging words heartened the terrorized, mistrustful and despondent people.  He was released from his palace arrest in 1967. In 1970, 1971 and 1974 he managed to travel to Rome, and was received by Pope Paul VI.

At the Episcopal Synod the sorely tried bishop summarized his life experience, by saying that the good shepherd´s mission was: 

 

˝to speak up when truth or human dignity and basic rights are under attack.˝ 

He carried out his duties even while seriously ill. He breathed his last on September 29, 1980, the day of the Archangel St. Michael, the feast day of his cathedral.

˝The blood of the martyrs is verily the seed of the Church˝.