Perhaps it is too banal to say that I felt as a member of a great and lively family in the time of my student’s years at the Department. Frankly speaking, that was a rather unusual feeling for a student coming out of the strict hierarchy and requisite alienation of the academic community in a provincial East-European university. The person who in an unceremonious manner made me to realize that temporary relocation from the East (rather South-East) to the Centre and pitilessly pushed me and my fellows out of our “barbarian” identity into the civilized English-speaking society of young medievalists was Janos Bak. He was the only capable to do that because he was not only one of the founding fathers of the Department, but because he was and always be the only and ultimate Father of the Family. Consciously or not, that was his unique behavior I witnessed all those years I spent in the expanding House of the Family and therefore, I have never used to call him “Janos”. Well, there were some happy moments I enjoyed his favour but much more I have experienced of his austerity, always sincere and kind-hearted, thus learning a lot about the craft of medieval studies. Yet the greatest lesson of the “medieval” period of my life I learned from the Father was how one can bring the sense, the spirit, and the drama of the Middle Ages to the pragmatic minds and modern hearts of the students on the eve of the Third Millennium and after. As Janos Bak has inimitably shown us, this could be done only in one way, with passion and love. Learning such a thing is a chance for life. Thank you for that gift, Professor Bak!
Rossina Kostova
