Introducing our novice

I am Benedikt Nemeth OSB, 25 years old and the new novice of Admont Abbey. I come from Hungary, from Ödenburg, or as it is called in Hungarian, from Sopron, where I grew up together with my four siblings. I studied for 12 years at the Ursulines in Ödenburg, where I passed my A-levels in 2017. Even back then, I was already asking myself: "What would it be like if I were a priest?". At the time, I couldn't present this wish to my family, so I continued my studies in a secular career at the Technical University of Budapest. During my time at university, I already knew that I wanted to change my life in a clerical direction, but before that I completed the studies I had started, so I graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in 2021. At the end of summer 2021, I entered the Benedictine Abbey in Tihany next to Lake Balaton, where I lived for two years. Shortly afterwards, I took my C1 language exam (native-like level) for German at the ÖSD Institute. After the Hungarian novitiate, I wanted to continue studying theology at an Austrian university, which would not have been possible after the novitiate in Hungary. For this reason, I left Tihany and came to Admont to continue the Benedictine way of life and to become a good Benedictine and religious priest in Admont. I find the focus of Admont Abbey exemplary, especially the common choir prayer, the pastoral service in the neighbourhood and the education in the abbey grammar school. I would also like to join these activities in the future. I am very grateful that the community in Admont has accepted and welcomed me so warmly and that I was able to officially begin my novitiate on 10 October with the investiture.