1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Guzmics, Izidór

GUZMICS, IZIDÓR (1786–1839). Hungarian theologian, was born on the 7th of April 1786 at Vámos-Család, in the county of Sopron. At Sopron (Oedenburg) he was instructed in the art of poetry by Paul Horváth. In October 1805 he entered the Benedictine order, but left it in August of the following year, only again to assume the monastic garb on the 10th of November 1806. At the monastery of Pannonhegy he applied himself to the study of Greek under Farkas Tóth and in 1812 he was sent to Pesth to study theology. Here he read the best German and Hungarian authors, and took part in the editorship of the Nemzeti (National) Plutarkus, and in the translation of Johann Hübner’s Lexicon. On obtaining the degree of doctor of divinity in 1816, he returned to Pannonhegy, where he devoted himself to dogmatic theology and literature, and contributed largely to Hungarian periodicals. The most important of his theological works are: A kath. anyaszentegyháznak hitbeli tanitása (The Doctrinal Teaching of the Holy Catholic Church), and A keresztényeknek vallásbeli egyesülésökröl (On Religious Unity among Christians), both published at Pesth in 1822; also a Latin treatise entitled Theologia Christiana fundamentalis et theologia dogmatica (4 vols., Györ, 1828–1829). His translation of Theocritus in hexameters was published in 1824. His versions of the Oedipus of Sophocles and of the Iphigenia of Euripides were rewarded by the Hungarian Academy, of which in 1838 he was elected honorary member. In 1832 he was appointed abbot of the wealthy Benedictine house at Bakonybél, a village in the county of Veszprém. There he built an asylum for 150 children, and founded a school of harmony and singing. He died on the 1st of September 1839.