The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Léva

"The initiator of the Roman Catholic girls' school in Léva of the Sisters of Mercy named after Saint Vincent de Paula was Imre Szepesi, a Budapest-born university professor, because he experienced that girls' education here, and even elementary education itself, did not meet the requirements, since at the end of the 1960s barely a third of the compulsory school-age girls attended school and even these only received superficial education under the guidance of the cantor teacher and his assistant. ; His first plan was actually to establish an industrial drawing and pattern-making school, as well as a sewing school. He took the first step when he purchased the Kazy house on today's Széchenyi Street for 10,000 francs and offered it to the city for this purpose. However, since this amount had exhausted his financial resources, he decided to convert the building, equip it and ensure the salaries of the teachers. He started a collection and made an enthusiastic appeal to the citizens of the city, which, however, had little effect. In order to prevent the purchased house from remaining fruitless and empty, he let it be used as a temporary premises for the state teacher training school for two years for 600 francs. In addition, he continued the collection, the result of which was 654 francs. ; Szepesi was still working on the idea of setting up a drawing and industrial school at that time and in 1872 he sent 4 boxes of drawing equipment to Léva and entrusted it to the care of the religious order, among whom he found an enthusiastic and zealous helper in the person of Frank Ferencz. The women's association also offered its support, insofar as it wanted to set up a daycare center in the planned institution. Szepesi also had the committee that managed the money and made interest on it. The chairman of this committee was pharmacist Ede Bolemann. The same committee suggested that one of the purchased houses wing for 200 francs per year to the private girls' school that had just been established, and the other wing for 250 francs for housing. ; Szepesi was only willing to accept the women's association's offer to set up a kindergarten if it was of a Catholic nature, but children of all classes, ranks and religions were to be admitted to the institution. At the meeting held on September 13, 1874, she announced that, having become convinced that there was a more urgent need for a girls' school and a kindergarten than for an industrial drawing school, she would abandon her original plan. In this sense, the land registry of the house also took place on December 5, 1874. In addition, a special committee was elected to continue the affairs, whose chairman was László Lakner. Szepesi died on January 9, 1875 at the age of 64. At that time, the The foundation's assets were 3,569 francs. The lottery for the benefit of the fund, which had been initiated by Szepesi, was unsuccessful. After the appeal to the episcopal faculty for assistance remained unsuccessful, the chairman of the committee paid homage to the prince-primate János Simor to report on the state of affairs. However, since this did not have the desired result either, the idea arose to use the foundation for the future addition of the then small gymnasium to 6 classes. For this purpose, a request was made to the prince-primate and the county, and while these requests were being processed, the fund increased to 5,949 francs. The prince-primate handled the request in such a way that he did not allow the foundation's capital to be used for other purposes, but called on the committee to continue to manage it until the capital was at least He would secure an annual interest income of 1,000 francs and then he would furnish the girls' school. On May 8, 1878, the chairman of the committee announced that the prince-primate had summoned him to Esztergom and, after listening to his report, offered 10,000 francs for the establishment of the girls' school and stated that he would provide 4-5 nuns, whose needs he would take care of, that he would have the building renovated and equipped at his own expense, but that he wanted the institute to open in September. In the meantime, the foundation capital was already close to 9,000 francs, but the building, due to the existence of the lease agreement, could only be handed over to the sisters of mercy on November 28, 1880. In 1881, the capital was increased by a further donation of 14,000 francs by the prince-primate. increased the amount of the foundation to 30,000 francs. Soon all 6 elementary classes were opened, and later even a sewing school. ; In 1893, the prince-primate allowed the opening of the bourgeois school, donating 1,000 forints for its equipment and providing a separate annual grant of 300 forints for the institution. The bourgeois girls' school opened with 3 classes and its director was László Báthy, the current provost-parish priest. However, since the costs were not sufficient, in July 1895, at the suggestion of László Báthy, the prince-primate increased the annual grant of 300 francs to 850 francs. ; While the number of students in the first year was 252, today it is 670. In the meantime, in 1898, the neighboring house was also purchased It was converted for the purposes of the school for 25,000 crowns and 10,000 crowns at a cost of 10,000 crowns. The institution has two kindergartens, a 5-grade elementary school and a 4-grade middle school for girls, with 16 teachers. Prince Primate Vaszary Kolozs gives an annual grant of 2,100 crowns for its maintenance." ; The Sisters of Mercy of Szatmár were able to carry out their blessed educational work until 1945. ; The building is now home to a Slovak secondary school, but the attentive observer can still discover the original inscription on the facade above the entrance, which was not completely covered by the painting.