Deáki is a medium size village in the heart of an area called Mátyusföld, in the east corner of the Kisalföld (the Small Plain). At first sight, it is not in any way different from the settlements populated by Hungarians in the vicinity, at a closer look, however, its special features are conspicuous immediately. Before anything else, it has unique intellectual values, the thousand years old endurance of its people, there loyalty to the homeland, our language and culture, their stubborn and persevering struggle to survive.
During the large flow of its thousand years of history, all the generations of the people of Deáki experienced each turn in the fate of the nation. They lived to see the most severe pain and tragedy, but they never lost their faith. From the very beginning, they were the inhabitants of such
a small village that was closely linked to the foundation of the Hungarian state, and to Christianity. In 1001, one year after the coronation of Saint Stephen, our first king, it was mentioned in a document under the name of Wag, which document was nothing else than the precious Deed of Foundation of Pannonhalma. The then estate together with its people was donated by our king to the abbey of the Saint Benedictine order. That is how Deáki became the village of clerical people, the Benedictine monks for long centuries. This privileged position had its favourable impact on the development of not only the village, but also the vicinity.
The monks first built a chapel here, and later a monastery and a church. The church of the village was already mentioned in one of the charters of Pope Pascal II in the first half of the Arpadian age. It was consecrated in honour of the Virgin Mary in 1103. It was extended later. The new, large-scale work was started around 1220, and the construction of the still existing God’s House in a Norman style with two towers, and three naves was completed in 1228. After its completion, it was the most significant ecclesiastical building of the vicinity. On the order of Pope Gregory IX, it was consecrated by Jakab, the bishop of Nyitra on November 14, 1228. We know of the date of the celebration because the Pray-codex with the funeral oration, our literary monument in the Hungarian language contained in it, one of the liturgical rituals from the Arpadian age, was also used in the church of Deáki in the first half of the XIII century. The notable event of the consecration was recorded on page 26 of the codex with an addendum that the altar of the upper church for the members of the order was also consecrated the following day. Today’s name of the village in a format similar to the present name – Dyaqui – was mentioned by documents only in 1237–1240.
The relatively peaceful work of the monks to cure and build the souls was upset by the wars of the XVI century. In addition to the constant military expeditions, reformation, and the challenges of religious reform also had to be faced up to by the monks of Deáki. With the exception of shorter periods of time, the village always belonged to the abbey of Pannonhalma. Although part of the population chose the Reformed faith in the XVII century, the Benedictine monks acting in the village did not lack tolerance. The Catholics, the Reformed, and the Christian and the non-Christian population grew or suffered together.
The monks laid the foundation for the development of the village already in the XVIII century, but the time of real growth came with the age of Dualism, a couple of decades at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Deáki was following the route of bourgeois development, with its population growing, and itself developing into one of the most significant large villages of the region. Its dignitaries and people could make good use of the opportunities offered by the different ages. They recognised the importance of the railway and industrialisation at an early time. It is not accidental that it was in this settlement where the largest rolling mill of the region was established at the end of the XIX century. At the beginning of the last century, Deáki – after another short period – got back to the ownership of the Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma, which developed its manor here into a modern agricultural facility by the first years of the XX century.
After the disintegration of the historic Hungary, with the dictated peace of Trianon on June 4, 1920, Deáki fell under a new state, Czechoslovakia, but it managed to preserve its Hungarian character in this minority position as well, gaining strength from its Catholic and Reformed religions. Between the autumn of 1938 and the spring of 1945, it was re-attached to the mother country, but then the age of submission followed again. Those who insisted on being Hungarian had to leave their homeland, some people were deported by the authorities to Czechoslovakia to do forced agricultural labour, others were settled in Hungary on the basis of the population exchange agreement. The latter ones were replaced by Slovakians from Hungary, who came to live in the village, thus causing a final split in the balance of the almost purely Hungarian population until then. The initially forced coexistence by now has changed into a peaceful living together.
What was it that was said by Jusztinián Serédi – born as György Szapucsek –, the son of Deáki who reached the furthest and the highest, the Esztergom archbishop, and prince-archbishop of Hungary after his nomination as cardinal, answering the felicitations in Rome? We exist, we live and we want to live!
These few words could just as well be the summary of the one thousand years of history of his home village, and also a message to the new generations. And let us also add the former message formulated by another servant of God, reverend Czibor. We can survive if “…prayer on our children’s lips continues to come forth in our precious Hungarian mother tongue. Our sons and daughters sing their favourite songs learnt from their old parents in this language. We sing and we pray, and our lips are filled with songs, we rejoice and we weep for we are alive. When and how does the Creator play the harps of our lives. Every one of our days is different as it is different for those living in the past and living after us. Our waists are bent down by work, our arms swing forward to act, just like those of our ancestors, and our grandchildren at some time in the future. We bend down to the ground so that we can reach the sky. We talk to the land so that we can better understand the words of heaven. We look back to the past so that we can see the future better. And we bless and praise the sacred name of God for everything at all, whose is the only glory for ever and ever.”