His parents were Antal Lepár, a postal clerk, and Margit Etelka Anna Rötzer. His father was born in Temerin, and his mother in Budapest. He changed his last name to “Lékai” on February 12, 1934, under Ministry of the Interior Permit No. 13,875 of 1934. He was the younger brother of Gyula Lajos Lékai, O.Cist. He completed his high school studies at the Szent Imre Cistercian High School in Budapest. He entered the order on August 29, 1938. He took his simple vows on August 30, 1939, and his perpetual vows on April 5, 1944. He pursued his theological studies in Zirc from 1939 to 1941, then in Rome at the Pontificia Università San Tommaso D’Aquin from 1941 to 1943, and finally in Zirc again from 1944 to 1945. In 1945, he earned a licentiate in theology at the Dominican Order’s college in Sopron. He was ordained a priest by Bishop József Mindszenty of Veszprém on May 17, 1944. On September 5, 1950, he attempted to flee the country but was apprehended at the border and sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of illegal border crossing and espionage. He was released in 1956 and left the country on December 17 of that same year. He transferred to the Poblet Monastery in Spain on June 9, 1961, and then to the Dallas monastery on November 4, 1965. On August 17, 1967, he left the monastery, requested to be laicized, and subsequently married.

Az igazak hálátlansága, Magyar Papi Egység, 1961. karácsony