Mikuláš Jozef Lexmann

Mikuláš Jozef Lexmann, OP (28 October 1899 – 17 July 1952) was a Slovak Catholic priest, one of the most important figures of the Dominican Order in Slovakia.

He was an active man of wide interests, a pioneer of driving and a pilot. During World War II, Lexmann was hiding people in danger of their life in the crypt of the Dominican Church in Košice, and is thus registered among those who rescued Jews at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest. At the beginning of the 1950s, he was interned by the communist government in several monasteries, where harsh living conditions deteriorated his health and hastened his death. Lexmann belonged to the martyrs of the Dominican Order of the 20th century. In 2013, the Slovak province of the Order approved to initiate a process of his beatification.

Early life Jozef Lexmann was born as the first of eight children; his father was a craftsman and his lay Dominican mother had a drapery business with was pious. Four of her children eventually chose religious life: Apart from Jozef, his brother Gregor and sister Mary joined the Dominicans, and sister Brigita became a member of the Congregation of Teaching Sisters of Notre Dame. From 1912 to 1916, Lexmann studied at a grammar school in Budapest. He entered the Dominican Order in Graz and adopted the religious name Mikuláš (Nicholas) in 1917. He finished his novitiate and graduated in philosophy and theology in Graz and Vienna. He received priestly ordination on 29 July 1923. The following year, Lexmann began to work in the Dominican priory in Košice. On 4 July 1933 he became its superior.

The first flying monk

Apart from all of his duties, Lexmann was interested in technical innovations. He became the first priest to hold a driving license in Košice and used to drive there in 1920s. Using a rental car, Lexmann ran a driving course for the unemployed and the poor. He was an executive director of the Autoclub for Eastern Slovakia.

Other activities

He founded Cyril-Methodian Scouting with the Order of Peachers.

On August 16, 2013, a memorial plaque was placed at the front of the “Veritas” Cultural Center in Košice.