Abstract · The three most important events in human life are birth, marriage and death. All of them are concerned with deep respect. This is also true for today, but people used to lay more emphasis on it in the past. It was essentially important to pay the last respects to the dead, which included the hope of reunion and the faith in God as well. Despite faith and hope, the loved ones and admirers grieve over the death of each person. There was a long period preceding modern funeral ceremonies; the popular bereavement poems became general in the 20th century as well. In these poems, the deceased say farewell to the living ones. These literary pieces were sung at a morgue not by a priest but a cantor. Cantors had to be well-trained in order to meet this noble mission. The masters of cantors perfectly fulfilled these expectations. Our study shows the bereavement poems of Jenő Brezlay, a master of cantors, from Svilojevo, Vojvodina. The previously lost and accidentally found booklet contains 56 bereavement poems for the deceased people between 1920 and 1922. The youngest one was a newborn who lived only six hours, the eldest one died at the age of 86. There are various poems for small children, as well as for adults. We provide a taste of about 800 verses that made these funerals more moving.

Abstract · The study shows an example of hospice volunteering from Miskolc as an effective method for raising awareness. By introducing high school community service in Hungary, high schools received a new instrument to shape the worldview of young people. The author describes how this instrument works at the Fényi Gyula Jesuit High School within the framework of the Arrupe Program, by examining the cooperation between the school and the Szent Erzsébet Hospice (Saint Elisabeth Hospice). She mentions the role of teenage volunteers in hospices as well. The specific experiences and the interview details bring the readers closer to the Jesuit school's practices. In addition, the author compares the attitudes of 85 Hungarian youngsters towards death. Forty-six of the subjects were student hospice volunteers from the Fényi Gyula Jesuit High School, and 39 of them went to other schools and did not work as hospice volunteers.