Fr. Bernard Marton was born in Budapest, Hungary, on April 3, 1941. During World War II, while the capital was under siege, he and some members of his family fled the country and moved westward. After the collapse of the Nazi regime, they returned to their native land only to find their house destroyed, and all their belongings pilfered. Luckily, all the family members had survived. He enrolled in the grade school of the Cistercian Preparatory School in Budapest and attended there until the Communists closed all religious schools. He then enrolled in public school.
He was a sophomore in high school when the Hungarian Revolution broke out in October of 1956. Knowing that there was little chance that the revolution would succeed, he left Hungary for the United States. It took thirteen months to realize his goal; he first spent some time in various refugee camps in Austria, and in Switzerland. He finally arrived in Dallas on January 4, 1958.
Once settled, he enrolled in Irving High School, but soon after moving in with a family in Dallas, he transferred to and was graduated from Jesuit High School. He then went to the University of Dallas on a full tuition scholarship. While at UD he became better acquainted with the Fathers of the Cistercian Monastery Our Lady of Dallas, and decided to join their community. Since August of 1961, he has been one of their members.
For his theological formation, he was sent to Rome where he spent five years, obtaining degrees in theology: a Bachelor’s in 1965, Master’s in 1967, and a Doctorate in 1968. Upon his return to the United States, he was asked to teach in the newly formed Cistercian Preparatory School, where he started in the fall of 1968 as French and religion teacher. In the meantime, he also enrolled as a part-time student at SMU and obtained an MA in French literature in 1971. One year later, he was appointed Assistant Headmaster. He served in that capacity until the spring of 1981 when he was appointed Headmaster. He has, at the same time, performed the duties of Form Master for four classes, overseeing their growth and maturation from Form I through Form VIII. For 25 years he has also served as the College Counselor to Cistercian juniors and seniors, a job that in 2006 he had to relinquish in order to devote more of his time to the formation of the Junior Brothers in the Abbey. For several years he served there as the Master of Junior Brothers, with the additional duty of Prior of the monastery. He held that post until the winter of 2015. For the Spring Semester of the 2014-15 academic year he spent the whole semester as a visiting teacher in Budapest, St. Emery Gimnázium, the same school he attended in the late ‘40s as a first grader.
His hobbies include all computer related activities, photography and video, learning foreign languages and attending sporting events in which his school participates. He occasionally contributes to periodicals and designs book and pamphlet covers. For the past several years he has been an avid runner, having participated in and finished a number of half-marathons, twenty-nine marathons, including New York in the fall of 2000, the Guldensporen Marathon in Belgium during the summer of 2002, The LaSalle Marathon of Chicago in October of 2003, the Marathon de la baie du Mont Saint Michel during the summer of 2004, the Sunburst Marathon in South Bend, Indiana in 2005, the Boston Marathon in April of 2006, and the König Ludwig Marathon in Füssen, Bavaria on July 22, 2007; four Dallas or White Rock Marathons in December of 2009-2012. The last seven years he has expanded the distance to include ultra marathons, thus completed the inaugural Cowtown Ultra in 2009, and the subsequent 2010, 11, 12 and 13 Cowtown 50K, finishing first in his age group (65-69; 70-75) four times, earning the coveted 5-wedge Texas Star in February of 2013. [Cowtown Challenge] Finished Grandma’s Marathon [A Multipurpose Vacation] in Duluth, Minnesota in June of 2012.
He continued with his ultra running, and was in fact the only one to finish (albeit as a virtual run completed in Budapest, Hungary) the 2015 Cowtown since the race in Fort Worth was canceled due to inclement weather. This run, a distance of 10 5K loops joined by many students and teachers from the school, received incredible media coverage in the national evening news in Budapest as well as here at home – the first (and probably the only) time his name was mentioned along with the Kenyan runners who participated in the shorter, half-marathon distance.
For good measure he participated in and finished the 2015 Rome Marathon, where at the finish line he was greeted by the race organizers dressed as Roman soldiers, bowing and holding their lances as if in a triumphal entry to the Colosseum. [ photo ]
Continues teaching in the original Cistercian tradition as the last and lone representative of the pioneer Hungarian monks.
Name: |
Fr. Bernard A. Marton, O. Cist. |
Date of Birth: |
April 3, 1941 |
Place of Birth: |
Budapest, Hungary |
Citizenship: |
Naturalized American (May, 1963) |
High School: |
Graduate of Jesuit High School, Dallas, in May 1960 |
Education: |
University of Dallas, Dallas - 1960-1963 University of St. Anselm, Rome 1963-1968 Bachelor of Arts in Theology (STB) in 1966 Master of Arts in Theology (STM) in 1967 Doctor of Sacred Theology (STD) in 1968 Southern Methodist University, Dallas 1968-1971 Master of Arts in French Literature in 1971 (with work done at the University of Laval, Quebec, Canada, and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland) Education courses at the University of Dallas Summer seminars through NEH at the University of Notre Dame and Southeastern Massachusetts University (1986, 1990) Summer workshops in Gregorian Chant at the Abbey of Fontevrault, France |
Employment: 1968-71: Part-time teacher of French at the Cistercian Preparatory School, Irving, Texas, teaching grades 7 and 8; Religion in grade 4, Form Master (counselor) in grade 4
1971- present: Employment continued with various modifications of teaching assignments:
1969-81: Director of Transportation at Cistercian Prep, responsible for the transportation of about 115 students via three bus routes; purchase and maintain vehicles, set up schedules, hire personnel for driving.
1972-81: Assistant Headmaster at Cistercian Prep, with reduced teaching duties.
1981-96: Headmaster of Cistercian Prep, with added duty of College Counseling. At least one course of teaching each semester.
1996-Resigned post of Headmaster and was reinserted into full-time teaching in the Foreign Language Department. From Master of the class of ’12, and was asked to reassume duties of Assistant Headmaster, a job he held until 2011.
Highlights: Escaped from native Hungary during the 1956 Revolution, came to Irving on January 4, 1958 Entered the novitiate of the Cistercian Monastery Community in August of 1961. Ordained priest in July of 1967.
Served as Form Master to Cistercian Classes of: 1977, 1984, 1987, 1994, 2004, 2012 .
Spent the spring semester of 2014-’15 as visiting teacher in the St. Emery Cistercian school of Budapest.
