Grave of teacher Antal Vas

The name of Dr. Antal Vas, a teacher, literary critic, museologist and local historian, is not included in the 1969 volume of the Hungarian Biography Lexicon, nor in the Slovak Hungarian lexicons. However, he is mentioned in the Slovak Biographical Dictionary (SBS VI., 1994. p. 240) and the Szinnyei Lexicon (1914. p. 954). The former teacher of the Selmec Royal Catholic High School was born on May 1, 1851 in Baja. He also started high school here and continued in Pécs. He studied theology for three and a half years in the latter place, then studied philosophy for three years in Pest. He obtained a secondary school teacher's qualification in philosophy, Latin and Greek. He entered the teaching profession in 1876, initially teaching in Selmecbánya. From 1882 he was a teacher in Zsolna, and in 1890 he moved to Sombor, where he also taught German at the commercial school. Around this time, he changed his family name to Vas. From 1900 he was the director of the Hungarian Royal State Gymnasium in Bártfa. He held this position until 1907. In the meantime, he dealt with philosophy, pedagogy and linguistics, but he was also interested in museology. He was one of the founders and, from 1907, the first director of the Sáros Museum. Under the direction of Károly Divald, he had long participated in the collection of museum objects in Sáros County. In 1900, Bártfán published his work on local history about the sights of the city and its surroundings as an independent publication under the following title: Artistic and historical monuments and other sights in Bártfán and its surroundings. He also prepared the catalogue of the exhibitions of the Sáros Museum, which was also published as a separate publication under the title Vezető a Sáros megyei müzeum diploma exhibition Bártfán (Bártfa, 1907). He was also a member of the Széchenyi Literary Circle in Bártfa. (SBS VI., 1994. p. 240) ; He published several articles in professional journals and in the yearbooks of individual grammar schools (On will and its freedom. 1881, On the origin and criticism of sources concerning the origin of knowledge, On the religious and philosophical views of Euripides, On the reform of language teaching, etc.) His work entitled Aesopus and Aesopus' Fables was published under the name Eiselt in the yearbook of the Selmec grammar school in 1882. (Szinnyei J., 1914. p. 953) ; According to the Slovak Biographical Encyclopedia, Antal Vas died after 1913 (according to his tombstone, in 1938). We have not yet been able to find out the exact date of his death, nor do we know how and why he returned from Bárta to Selmecbánya. In the Bulletin of the Catholic Gymnasium published in 1916, he is listed among the school's teachers, and this is written about him: "Dr. Antal Vas, retired director of the Royal Hungarian Gymnasium, a teacher who volunteered and volunteered to replace teachers in military service. He was a member of the board and board of directors of the Auxiliary Gymnasium, the Catholic and the Russian Secondary School Teachers' Association, an elected member of the Selmecz and Bélabánya municipal authorities and the Roman Catholic elementary school board. He taught Hungarian in the 4th grade and history in the 3rd grade, 7 hours a week. He has been teaching for 39 years." (Dr. Rauchbauer J., 1916. 21. l.); His remains rest in the Church Cemetery. His family's tombstone has apparently been lying on the ground for quite some time.