Saint Étienne
Roi de Hongrie
(977-1038)
Les Hongrois étaient les descendants de ces fiers et terribles envahisseurs connus sous le nom de Huns. Saint Étienne eut le bonheur d'être l'apôtre en même temps que le roi des Hongrois, et de les civiliser.
Avant sa naissance, sa mère eut une vision de saint Étienne, martyr, lui prédisant que son enfant achèverait l'oeuvre de la conversion de la Hongrie, commencée par ses parents. Aussi le prédestiné reçut-il au baptême le nom d'Étienne. Ses premières inclinations le portèrent à Dieu; sa première parole fut le nom de Jésus; ses études furent aussi remarquables par ses succès que par sa piété.
Il avait vingt ans quand il succéda à son père. Pour donner tous ses soins à la christianisation de son royaume, il commença par établir une paix solide avec tous ses voisins. Ce ne fut pas sans peine que le pieux roi put mener à bonne fin son entreprise; son peuple était tout barbare et endurci dans les superstitions du paganisme; il lui fallut soutenir une guerre contre ses propres sujets; mais le jeûne, l'aumône et la prière lui assurèrent la victoire. Étienne fit alors venir des apôtres pour évangéliser cette nation ignorante et grossière; il publia des lois très sévères contre le meurtre, le vol, l'adultère, le blasphème et d'autres crimes; il pourvut à la protection des veuves et des orphelins et à la subsistance des pauvres; il fonda et enrichit les églises: aussi vit-on bientôt ce pays offrir une magnifique végétation chrétienne.
Dans toutes ses oeuvres, le saint roi était secondé par sa pieuse épouse, Gisèle, soeur de l'empereur saint Henri. L'humilité accompagnait tous les bienfaits du prince; souvent il choisissait la nuit pour accomplir ses oeuvres de charité; il lavait en secret les pieds des pèlerins, et cachait discrètement ses aumônes. Un jour qu'il était sorti incognito pour distribuer de l'argent aux malheureux, comme il n'avait point réussi à contenter tout le monde, il fut dévalisé et foulé aux pieds; loin de s'en fâcher et de se faire connaître, il offrit à la Sainte Vierge cette humiliation et résolut de ne jamais rien refuser à aucun pauvre. Il était impossible que ses revenus pussent suffire à tant de charités, sans quelque merveille d'en haut. Un jour que saint Étienne priait, absorbé en Dieu, il fut enlevé en l'air par les Anges jusqu'à ce que son oraison fût achevée. Dieu opéra en sa faveur beaucoup d'autres prodiges.
Ses dernières années furent éprouvées par des maladies, qu'il supporta avec patience et courage.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_etienne_de_hongrie.html
Saint Etienne de Hongrie
roi (✝ 1038)
Roi de Hongrie, il
fut le premier à consacrer un royaume à la Vierge Marie. Il avait été baptisé
lors de la conversion de son père vers 982. Il épousa
sainte Gisèle, la sœur de l'empereur d'Allemagne Henri II.
Couronné roi de Hongrie avec l'approbation du pape Sylvestre II, il consacra
les quarante années de son règne à organiser et christianiser son nouveau
royaume, fondant huit évêchés et de nombreux monastères, faisant venir des
missionnaires de Bavière ou de Bohême, construisant de nombreuses églises pour
les fidèles. Il a laissé le souvenir d'un grand roi, d'un homme irréprochable
et d'une immense bonté.
Le martyrologe romain fait mémoire de saint Étienne de Hongrie le 16 août. Il
est décédé le 15 août 1038 qui est donc sa naissance au
ciel et sa fête. Il a été canonisé le 20 août 1083.
Mémoire de saint Étienne, roi de Hongrie. Après avoir reçu par le
baptême la nouvelle naissance, et du pape Silvestre II la couronne royale, il
veilla à développer la foi du Christ dans son peuple, organisa l’Église dans
son royaume et la dota de biens et de monastères. Roi juste et pacifique dans
le gouvernement de ses sujets, il quitta ce monde pour le ciel à Albe Royale le
jour de l’Assomption en 1038.
Saint Étienne
de Hongrie,
premier roi apostolique de Hongrie
L'Occident, réunifié par les Carolingiens, pouvait croire
achevées les invasions barbares, quand, à la fin du IX° siècle, des peuplades
venues du midi de l’Oural, les Magyards, poussés par les Petchénègues,
envahirent la cuvette du Danube puis s’aventurèrent jusqu'en Lorraine et en
Italie du Nord. L’origine de ces hordes de Magyards ou de Hongrois[1] est mystérieuse ; si leur langue se
rattachait au finois et au basque, leur civilisation était proche des Turcs et
des peuples de la steppe asiatique ; ils rappelaient les Huns ou les
Avars, fixés dans la plaine danubienne aux V° et VII° siècles ; nomades
qui combattaient à cheval, ils attaquaient les abbayes, rançonnaient les villes
pour entasser le butin dans des chariots, et vendre comme esclaves les femmes
et les jeunes gens.
Le 10 août 955, l'empereur romain-germanique Otton le
Grand battit les tribus hongroises à Lechfeld, près d’Augsbourg. Dès lors, les
Hongrois se regroupèrent pour se sédentariser sous la famille des Arpads.
Dix-huit ans plus tard, quand le duc Géza épousa Sarolta, fille du chef de
Transylvanie, le christianisme, venu de Byzance et de Bulgarie, pénétra en
Hongrie. De l’union de de Geza et de Sarolta naquit Vajk (ou Vaïk ou Baïk) vers
969, à Esztergom[2].
Après la mort de Sarolta, Géza épousa Ethelgide (ou Adélaïde), fille du prince
polonais Miesco qui s’était converti au christianisme en 966. Des missionnaires
slaves, comme Vojtech, le futur saint Adalbert, évêque de Prague, entrèrent en
Hongrie, en même temps que les évêques bavarois Pilgrim de Passau et Wolfgang
de Ratisbonne.
Vers 969, sous l'influence d’Ethelgide et d'Adalbert de
Prague qu’elle avait attiré en Hongrie, Géza reçut le baptême, suivi de son
fils, Vajk, qui prit le nom d'Etienne, parce que le protomartyr était apparu à
ses parents ; à sa mère, il avait prédit : « un fils
va bientôt naître de toi, il sera le premier à porter la couronne royale en
Hongrie[3] » ; à son père, il avait dit : « Tu
projettes de répandre l’Evangile mais, pour cette prédication, tes mains ne
sont-elles pas trop souillées de sang ? Un fils va donc te naître. Il
deviendra saint, c’est-à-dire qu’après avoir régné sur la terre, il régnera
éternellement dans les cieux. Pour préparer cette avènement, Dieu va susciter
un prophète. Sois attentif à son message : c’est lui qui, parmi ton
peuple, sèmera le bon grain. » Adalbert a probablement baptisé Etienne
à Esztergom, résidence des Arpads, en 974. Géza qui mourut en 997, avait, deux
ans plus tôt, marié Etienne à Gisèle, fille du duc Henri II de Bavière et sœur
du saint empereur Henri.
A la mort de Géza, Koppany, cousin païen du duc Etienne,
maître de la région située au sud du lac Balaton, revendiqua le pouvoir. Le duc
Etienne envahit les terres de Koppany et le vainquit à Vesprin, attribuant sa
victoire à l’intercession de saint Martin de Tours, natif de Pannonie[4] : en remerciement, il fonda le
monastère du Mont-Saint-Martin (Pannonhalma) qu'il confia à
Astric, ami de saint Adalbert. Tout au long de son règne, Etienne dut se
défendre contre les révoltes païennes qui éclatèrent en Hongrie,
singulièrement celle du puissant Ajtony de Marosvar qui, trahi par son
lieutenant Csanad, fut défait et tué. Au sud, Etienne repoussa les Petchénègues
et les Bulgares.
Pour mieux christianiser le pays, Etienne voulut créer,
des structures écclésiastiques permanentes, en dehors des clercs allemands qui
étaient prêts à germaniser l'Eglise hongroise. L'empereur était alors Otton
III, installé à Rome où il avait mis sur le siège de saint Pierre son maître,
Gerbert d'Aurillac, devenu le pape Sylvestre II. Otton III et Sylvestre qui
avaient accepté de créer une Eglise nationale en Pologne et fondé l’archevêché
de Gniezno, furent favorables à la création d'une Eglise nationale hongroise et
le pape offrit à Etienne une couronne royale. Le roi Etienne I° fut couronné en
la cathédrale d’Esztergom, à la Noël de l’an 1000, et reçut le titre de « roi apostolique » pour souligner qu’il a reçu la couronne du
pape.
Le roi Etienne créa deux archevêchés (Esztergom pour
Anastase et Kalocza pour Astric) et huit évêchés (Veszprem, Pecs, Györ, Eger,
Vac, Bihar, Czanad et Szekesfehervar). Chaque groupe de dix villages dut avoir
son église et assurer, par la dîme, la subsistance du clergé.
En route pour la Terre sainte, Gérard, abbé de
Saint-Georges de Venise, arriva à Zara où un abbé de Dalmatie l'invita à
évangéliser les Hongrois. Introduit à la cour, il devint précepteur d'Imre,
fils d'Etienne, puis évêque de Czanad. Gérard ouvrit une école pour les futurs
prêtres, veilla au faste des cérémonies liturgiques et construisit deux
monastères, l'un en l'honneur de saint Georges, l'autre dédié à la Vierge.
D'autres monatères furent fondés par des moines venus de
Bohème, voire de France, car Etienne était en relation avec saint Odilon de
Cluny. Le réformateur romain Richard de Saint-Vanne traversa plusieurs fois la
Hongrie, et y introduisit des livres liturgiques occidentaux. Etienne s'occupa
personnellement des nouveaux monastères et des écoles. Il rédigea pour son fils
une « Instruction pour la formation morale », sorte de
miroir du prince[5].
Marié, Imre qui avait fait vœu de virginité, mourut accidentellement à l'âge de
vingt-quatre ans.
A l'imitation des rois chrétiens d'Occident, Etienne,
législateur, publia un Décret d’une cinquantaine d'articles, qui
octroyait à l'Eglise de nombreux privilèges. Ainsi, il soumettait les laïcs à
son autorité et à la justice épiscopale et il associait le clergé au conseil
royal. Évêques et abbés formaient, avec les grands, une puissante aristocratie,
maîtresse des terres et des hommes.
Grâce à Etienne, la Hongrie devint le passage obligé pour
les pèlerins allant en Terre Sainte, la route de terre étant souvent plus sûre
que celle de mer. Le roi fit construire à Jérusalem une église dédiée à saint
Georges et, à Rome, une hôtellerie pour les pèlerins hongrois. Il donna de
l'argent pour édifier une église à Constantinople. Il accueillait les pèlerins,
les voyageurs et les artistes d'Italie, de Germanie et d'Orient. La croix que
la reine Gisèle fit fabriquer pour le tombeau de sa mère (conservée à Munich)
est l'œuvre d'orfèvres bavarois. La chasuble de Notre-Dame de Szekesfehervar,
transformée en manteau de sacre, est réalisée par des brodeurs influencés par
des artistes orientaux.
Etienne partagea la vie des clercs. Très dévôt à la
Vierge, fait célébrer le jour de la maîtresse (15 avril) et
élever dans son palais de Szekesfehervar une basilique en l'honneur de la Mère
de Dieu qui le conseille dans ses campagnes militaires. Ainsi, menacé par
l'empereur Conrad II en 1030, il doit à Marie la retraite de l'armée
germanique.
Le saint roi Etienne mourut le 15 août 1038 ; son
fils étant mort avant lui, il désigna pour lui succéder Pierre Orseolo qui fut
détrôné par son beau-frère, Samuel. L'évêque Gérard de Czanad, qui avait refusé
de sacrer l'usurpateur, fut tué par les païens (1046), cependant que les
Petchenègues envahissaient le pays. La Hongrie ne retrouva la paix qu'avec le
règne de Ladislas (1077-1095) qui, émerveillé par les miracles qui se
multipliaient sur le tombeau d'Etienne, demanda au pape Grégoire VII la
permission d'élever les restes de son prédécesseur, le 15 août 1083,
c'est-à-dire de le déclarer saint.
Grégoire VII canonisa Etienne, son fils Imre et l'évêque
Gérard de Czanad. Les pèlerins affluèrent dès lors au tombeau royal d'Alba
Regalis (Szekesfehervar), au sud de Budapest. En 1686, quand Budapest fut
reprise aux Turcs, Innocent XI étendit le culte de saint Etienne à l’Eglise
universelle.
[1]
Les ancêtres des Hongrois appartenaient à la branche ougrienne des peuples
finno-ougriens ; leur plus proches parents étaient les Mansis ou Vogouls,
et les Hansis ou Ostiaques, dont les descendants vivent aujourd’hui entre
l’Oural et le cours inférieur de l’Ob. Le mot magyard est
l’appellation que se sont donnée les Hongrois : la première syllabe, magy, est l’équivalent du nom du peuple Mansi (Vogoul) ; la
seconde syllabe, ar (autrefois er), provient du
finnois et tchérémisse qui signifie homme. Le nom sous lequel on les désigne à
l’étranger semble provenir d’un peuple bulgaro-turc, les onogours, avec
lesquels les ancêtres des Magyards ont vécu en union tribale : ougrine en
vieux russe, ungar en allemand, hungarus en latin, hongrois en
français.
[5] Puisque personne ne doit aspirer à la couronne s'il n'est fidèle
catholique, nous donnerons la première place, dans nos instructions, à la
sainte Foi. Avant tout, je recommande donc, très cher fils, de conserver
précieusement la foi catholique ... Que tous vous reconnaissent comme un vrai
chrétien ! Après la foi, ce qui occupe la seconde place, c'est l'Eglise,
propagée par les apôtres et répandue dans tout l'univers ... Quiconque diminue
ou défigure la dignité de la sainte Eglise, mutile le corps du Christ. Ce qui
fait l'ornement de l'Eglise, c'est l'ordre des pontifes ... Sans eux, on ne
constitue ni roi ni prince ... Si vous les vénérez, vous guérirez vous-même de
vos péchés et gouvernerez bien le royaume. Le quatrième astre du gouvernement
c'est la fidélité des nobles : boulevard du royaume, défenseurs des faibles,
vainqueurs des ennemis ... Sachez les commander sans orgueil ni envie ! Le
cinquième joyau de la couronne, c'est la sagesse, assortie de la patience. En
effet, les rois patients règnent, les rois impatients tyrannisent. Accueil des
hôtes : voilà vraiment la cinquième fleur de la dignité royale ... En cet
esprit, très cher fils, accueille les étrangers avec bienveillance et
traite-les avec honneur. Les sages conseillers tiennent la septième place près
du trône ... Sache-le donc, très cher fils : chacun à sa place ; les jeunes
gens aux armes, les vieillards aux conseils. En effet, les avis des sages sont
enfermés dans les cœurs des gens d'expérience. Il ne faut pas les livrer aux
bavardages des insensés. En cet esprit, l'imitation des ancêtres occupe la
huitième place. Sache-le : le suprême ornement du royaume, c'est d'imiter ses
honorables parents. Quiconque résiste à son père est l'ennemi de Dieu. L'esprit
de désobéissance fanerait les fleurs de la couronne. La prière, primordial
moyen de salut pour le souverain, vient en neuvième position ... Prie, mon
fils, pour que Dieu écarte de toi tous les vices. Dixième précepte : c'est
l'accord des vertus qui orne la couronne royale puisque le seigneur des vertus
est le roi des cieux ... Quiconque ne possède pas cette synthèse vertueuse ne
peut régner ici-bas ni au royaume des cieux.
« Puisque personne ne doit aspirer à la
couronne s'il n'est fidèle catholique, nous donnerons la première place, dans
nos instructions, à la sainte Foi. Avant tout, je recommande donc, très cher
fils, de conserver précieusement la foi catholique ... Que tous vous
reconnaissent comme un vrai chrétien ! Après la foi, ce qui occupe la seconde
place, c'est l'Eglise, propagée par les apôtres et répandue dans tout l'univers
... Quiconque diminue ou défigure la dignité de la sainte Eglise, mutile le
corps du Christ. Ce qui fait l'ornement de l'Eglise, c'est l'ordre des pontifes
... Sans eux, on ne constitue ni roi ni prince ... Si vous les vénérez, vous
guérirez vous-même de vos péchés et gouvernerez bien le royaume. Le quatrième astre
du gouvernement c'est la fidélité des nobles : boulevard du royaume, défenseurs
des faibles, vainqueurs des ennemis ... Sachez les commander sans orgueil ni
envie ! Le cinquième joyau de la couronne, c'est la sagesse, assortie de la
patience. En effet, les rois patients règnent, les rois impatients tyrannisent.
Accueil des hôtes : voilà vraiment la cinquième fleur de la dignité royale ...
En cet esprit, très cher fils, accueille les étrangers avec bienveillance et
traite-les avec honneur. Les sages conseillers tiennent la septième place près
du trône ... Sache-le donc, très cher fils : chacun à sa place ; les jeunes
gens aux armes, les vieillards aux conseils. En effet, les avis des sages sont
enfermés dans les coeurs des gens d'expérience. Il ne faut pas les livrer aux
bavardages des insensés. En cet esprit, l'imitation des ancêtres occupe la
huitième place. Sache-le : le suprême ornement du royaume, c'est d'imiter ses
honorables parents. Quiconque résiste à son père est l'ennemi de Dieu. L'esprit
de désobéissance fanerait les fleurs de la couronne. La prière, primordial
moyen de salut pour le souverain, vient en neuvième position ... Prie, mon
fils, pour que Dieu écarte de toi tous les vices. Dixième précepte : c'est
l'accord des vertus qui orne la couronne royale puisque le seigneur des vertus
est le roi des cieux ... Quiconque ne possède pas cette synthèse vertueuse ne
peut régner ici-bas ni au royaume des cieux. »
L'Occident, réunifié par les Carolingiens, pouvait
croire achevées les invasions barbares, quand, à la fin du IX° siècle, des
peuplades venues de l'Est, les Magyards, s'installèrent dans la cuvette du
Danube et s’aventurèrent jusqu'en Lorraine et en Italie du Nord. L’origine de
ces hordes de Magyars ou de Hongrois est mystérieuse et, si leur langue se
rattache au finois, leur civilisation est proche des Turcs et des peuples de la
steppe asiatique ; ils rappellent les Huns ou les Avars, fixés dans la
plaine danubienne aux V° et VII° siècles ; nomades qui combattent à cheval, ils
attaquent les abbayes, rançonnent les villes pour entasser le butin dans des
chariots, et vendre comme esclaves les femmes et les jeunes gens.
En 955, près d’Augsbourg, l'empereur germanique Otton le
Grand battit les tribus hongroises qui se regroupèrent pour se sédentariser
sous la famille des Arpads. Quand, vers 972, le prince Geza épousa Sarolta,
fille du chef de Transylvanie, le christianisme, venu de Byzance et de
Bulgarie, pénétra en Hongrie. Après la mort de Sarolta, Geza épousa Ethelgide
ou Adélaïde, fille du prince polonais Miesco, converti au christianisme en 966.
Des missionnaires slaves, comme Vojtech, le futur saint Adalbert, évêque de
Prague, entrèrent en Hongrie, en même temps que les évêques bavarois Pilgrim de
Passau et Wolfgang de Ratisbonne.
Vers 969, Geza, sous l'influence d’Adélaïde et
d'Adalbert de Prague, reçut le baptême, suivi de son fils, Vajk, qui prit le
nom d'Etienne qui serait apparu à ses parents pour leur prédire qu’il
recevrait, outre une couronne temporelle, une couronne éternelle (Stephanos,
en grec, signifie couronné). Adalbert aurait baptisé Etienne
à Esztergom, résidence des Arpads. Geza maria alors son fils à Gisèle, fille du
duc Henri de Bavière, et mourut en 997.
A la mort de Geza, Koppany revendiqua le pouvoir, mais
Etienne le vainquit au sud du lac Balaton et, pour remercier saint Martin,
natif de Pannonie il fonda le monastère du Mont-Saint-Martin (Pannonhalma),
qu'il confia à Astric, ami de saint Adalbert. D’autres révoltes éclatèrent en Hongrie sous le puissant Ajtony qui, trahi par son lieutenant
Csanad, fut défait et tué. Au sud, Etienne repoussa les Petchenègues.
Pour mieux christianiser le pays, Etienne voulut créer,
des structures ecclésiastiques permanentes, en dehors des clercs allemands qui
étaient prêts à germaniser l'Eglise hongroise. L'empereur était alors Otton
III, installé à Rome où il a mis sur le siège de saint Pierre son maître Gerbert
d'Aurillac, devenu le pape Sylvestre II. Otton III et Sylvestre qui avaient
accepté de créer une Eglise nationale en Pologne et fondé l’archevêché de
Gniezno, furent favorables à la création d'une Eglise nationale hongroise et le
pape offrit à Etienne une couronne royale.
Le roi Etienne créa deux archevêchés (Esztergom pour
Anastase et Kalocza pour Astric) et huit évêchés.
En route pour la Terre sainte, Gérard, abbé de
Saint-Georges de Venise, arriva à Zara où un abbé de Dalmatie l'invita à
évangéliser les Hongrois. Introduit à la cour, il devint précepteur d'Imre,
fils d'Etienne, puis évêque de Czanad. Gérard ouvrit une école pour les futurs
prêtres, veilla au faste des cérémonies liturgiques et construisit deux
monastères, l'un en l'honneur de saint Georges, l'autre dédié à la Vierge.
D'autres monatères furent fondés par des moines venus de Bohème, voire de
France, car Etienne était en relation avec saint Odilon de Cluny. Le
réformateur romain Richard de Saint-Vanne traversa plusieurs fois la Hongrie, et
y introduisit des livres liturgiques occidentaux. Etienne s'occupa
personnellement des nouveaux monastères et des écoles. Il rédigea pour son fils
une Instruction pour la formation morale, sorte de miroir du
prince. Marié, Imre qui avait fait voeu de virginité, mourut accidentellement à
l'âge de vingt-quatre ans.
A l'imitation des rois chrétiens d'Occident, Etienne,
législateur, publia un Décret d’une cinquantaine d'articles, qui
octroyait à l'Eglise de nombreux privilèges. Ainsi, il soumettait les laïcs à
son autorité et à la justice épiscopale et il associait le clergé au conseil
royal. Évêques et abbés formaient, avec les grands, une puissante aristocratie,
maîtresse des terres et des hommes.
Grâce à Etienne, la Hongrie devint le passage obligé
pour les pèlerins allant en Terre Sainte, la route de terre étant souvent plus
sûre que celle de mer. Le roi fit construire à Jérusalem une église dédiée à
saint Georges et, à Rome, une hôtellerie pour les pèlerins hongrois. Il donna
de l'argent pour édifier une église à Constantinople. Il accueillait les
pèlerins, les voyageurs et les artistes d'Italie, de Germanie et d'Orient. La
croix que la reine Gisèle fit fabriquer pour le tombeau de sa mère (conservée à
Munich) est l'oeuvre d'orfèvres bavarois. La chasuble de Notre-Dame de
Szekesfehervar, transformée en manteau de sacre, est réalisée par des brodeurs
influencés par des artistes orientaux.
Etienne partagea la vie des clercs. Très dévôt à la
Vierge, fait célébrer le jour de la maîtresse (15 avril) et
élever dans son palais de Szekesfehervar une basilique en l'honneur de la Mère
de Dieu qui le conseille dans ses campagnes militaires. Ainsi, menacé par
l'empereur Conrad II en 1030, il doit à Marie la retraite de l'armée
germanique.
Le saint roi Etienne mourut le 15 août 1038, successeur
désigné, Pierre Orseolo, fut détrôné par son beau-frère Samuel. L'évêque Gérard
de Csanad, qui avait refusé de sacrer l'usurpateur, fut tué par les païens
(1046), cependant que les Petchenègues envahissaient le pays. La Hongrie ne
retrouva la paix qu'avec le règne de Ladislas (1077-1095 qui, émerveillé par
les miracles qui se multipliaient sur le tombeau d'Etienne, demanda au pape
Grégoire VII la permission d'élever les restes de son prédécesseur, le 15 août
1083, c'est-à-dire de le déclarer saint.
Grégoire VII canonisa Etienne, son fils Imre et l'évêque
Gérard de Csanad. Les pèlerins affluèrent dès lors au tombeau royal d'Alba
Regalis (Szekesfehervar), au sud de Budapest.
Mort en 1038. Fête étendue à l’Eglise universelle en 1686. Dans beaucoup de diocèses de France, St Etienne est seulement commémoré car on fête aujourd’hui les bienheureux Martyrs des Carmes (comme par exemple le Bhx Antoine de Ravinel).
Quatrième leçon. Etienne introduisit en Hongrie la foi chrétienne et le titre de roi. Après avoir obtenu du souverain Pontife la couronne royale, et avoir été sacré par son ordre, il fit hommage de son royaume au Siège apostolique. Sous l’inspiration d’une piété, et avec une munificence admirables, il fonda à Rome, à Jérusalem et à Constantinople, divers établissements hospitaliers ; en Hongrie, l’archevêché de Strigonie et dix évêchés. Vénérant le Christ lui-même dans les pauvres, Etienne était également plein d’amour et de libéralité pour eux, et jamais il n’en renvoya un seul sans l’avoir consolé et secouru. Bien plus, après d’immenses sommes distribuées pour soulager leur indigence, on le vit souvent donner aussi, avec une bénignité extrême, le mobilier de son palais Il avait coutume de laver de ses mains les pieds aux pauvres, d’aller la nuit, seul et sans se faire connaître, visiter les hôpitaux, servir les malades et accomplir tous les autres devoirs de la charité ; c’est en témoignage de ses vertus que sa main demeura sans corruption, lorsque son cadavre fut tombé en poussière.
Cinquième leçon. Son amour de la prière l’amenait à veiller des nuits presque entières ; et pendant qu’il avait l’esprit fixé dans la contemplation des choses célestes, il advint qu’on le vit ravi en extase et élevé de terre. Par le secours de l’oraison, il échappa plus d’une fois miraculeusement aux conspirations des méchants et aux attaques d’ennemis puissants. De son mariage avec Gisèle de Bavière, sœur de l’empereur saint Henri, il eut un fils nommé Emeric, qu’il éleva avec tant de vigilance et une si solide piété, que, dans la suite, la sainteté remarquable de ce prince en fut la conséquence et la preuve. Etienne sut si bien conduire les affaires de son royaume, qu’il s’entoura d’hommes d’une prudence et d’une sainteté consommées, et ne décida jamais rien sans leur avis. Sous la cendre et le cilice il demandait à Dieu, par de très humbles prières, la grâce de voir, avant de mourir, la Hongrie tout entière acquise à la foi catholique. Son grand zèle à propager la foi lui valut d’être appelé l’apôtre de cette nation et le souverain Pontife l’autorisa, ainsi que ses successeurs, à faire porter la croix devant eux.
Sixième leçon. Animé d’une ardente dévotion envers la Mère de Dieu, il construisit une vaste église en son honneur, et l’établit patronne de la Hongrie. En retour, la Vierge Marie l’introduisit au ciel le jour même de son Assomption, que les Hongrois appellent le jour de la Grande Souveraine, d’après une institution de ce saint roi. Quand il fut mort, son corps répandit une odeur suave et une liqueur céleste. Le Pontife romain voulut qu’on le transférât dans un lieu plus digne de lui, où on l’ensevelit avec beaucoup d’honneur. Cette translation fut accompagnée de nombreux miracles de tous genres. Le jour de sa fête a été fixé, par le souverain Pontife Innocent XI, au quatre des nones de septembre, en mémoire d’une victoire éclatante : celle que l’armée de Léopold, empereur des Romains et roi de Hongrie, remporta à la même date sur les Turcs, leur reprenant, avec le secours de Dieu, la ville de Budapest.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/02-09-St-Etienne-roi-confesseur
St.
Stephen the Great
St. Stephen the Great (977-1038), was the
son of the Magyar chieftain Geza, Stephen succeeded him as leader in 997.
Already raised a Christian, in 996 he wed the daughter of Duke Henry II of
Bavaria and devoted much of his reign to the promotion of the Christian faith.
He gave his patronage to Church leaders, helped
build churches, and was a proponent of the rights of the Holy See. Stephen also
crushed the pagan counterreaction to Christianity, converting the so-called
Black Hungarians after their failed rebellion. In recognition of his efforts,
Stephen was anoited king of Hungary in 1000, receiving the cross and crown from
Pope Sylvester II.
The remainder of his reign was taken up with the
consolidation of the Christian hold on the region. His crown and regalia became
beloved symbols of the Hungarian nation, and Stephen was venerated as the ideal
Christian king. Canonized in 1083 by Pope St. Gregory VII, he became the patron
saint of Hungary.
Statue
de saint Étienne devant le château
de Buda
St. Stephen
He was a son of the Hungarian chief Géza and was baptized, together with his father, by Archbishop St. Adalbert of Prague
in 985, on which occasion he changed his heathen name Vaik (Vojk) into Stephen. In 995 he married
Gisela, a sister of Duke Henry of Bavaria, the future Emperor St. Henry II, and in 997 succeeded to the throne
of Hungary. In order to make Hungary a Christian nation and to establish himself more firmly as
ruler, he sent Abbot Astricus to Rome to petition Pope Sylvester II for the royal dignity and the power
to establish episcopal sees. The pope acceded to his wishes and, in addition,
presented him with a royal crown with which he was crowned at Gran on 17 August, 1001 (see HUNGARY: History). He founded a monastery in Jerusalem and hospices for pilgrims at Rome, Ravenna, and Constantinople. He was a personal friend of St. Bruno of Querfurt and corresponded with Abbot St. Odilo of Cluny.
The last years of his life were embittered by sickness and family troubles. When on 2 September, 1031, his only
son, St. Emeric, lost his life on a boar hunt, his cherished hope of transferring the reins
of government into the hands of a pious Christian prince were shattered. During his lifetime a
quarrel arose among his various nephews concerning the right of succession, and some of them even took part
in a conspiracy against his life. He was buried beside his son at Stuhlweissenburg, and both were canonized together in 1083. His feast is on 2 September, but in Hungary his chief festival
is observed on 20 August, the day on which his relics were transferred to Buda. His incorrupt right
hand is treasured as the most sacred
relic in Hungary.
Sources
Three old lives are extant: Vita major in Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., XI, 229-39, written probably before
1083; Cronica Ungarorum in Mon. Pol.
hist., I, 495-515, written about 1086; Vita minor in Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., XI, 226-9, written about 1100. Another Life written by HARTWIG shortly after
the Vita minor in Script. rerum Hung.,
I, 413-28, is based on the three preceding ones. KARACSONYI, Szent Istvan kiraly elete (Budapest,
1904); IDEM, Szent Istvan kiraly
okleveley es a Szilveszter bulla (Budapest, 1894); HORN, Saint. Étienne, roi apostolique de Hongrie
(Paris, 1899); STILTING, Vita s. Stephani
regis Hungarioe (Raab, 1747; Kaschau, 1767); BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 2 September; BARING-GOULD, Lives of the Saints, 2 September.
Ott, Michael. "St. Stephen." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 2 Sept. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14287a.htm>.
Statue de saint Étienne à Miskolc
St. Stephen, King of Hungary, Confessor
From his life written by Chartuiz and from the
historians Bonfinius, in Hist. Hungar. l. 1. Hermannus Contractus, &c. See
also Czuittinger, Specimen Hungariæ Litteratæ, p. 1, t. 1. The Elzivirian edit.
of Resp. et Status Hungariæ, pp. 117, 154. Antonius Pagi in Baron. and Gabriel
de juxta Hornad, L. De Initiis Religionis Christianæ inter Hungaros. Francofur.
1740.
A.D. 1038.
GEYSA, the fourth duke of
the Hungarians, 1 by conversing with certain
Christian captives, and afterwards with certain holy missionaries, as
Piligrinus, bishop of Passaw, St. Wolfgand, bishop of Ratisbon, &c., or
their disciples, became infinitely delighted with the sanctity of the maxims of
our holy faith, and was convinced of its divine truth and original by the
motives and arguments which are, as it were, the stamp which God has put upon
his revelation in order to confirm it to us. And though he had reason to fear
great disturbances from the ferocity of his people upon a change of religion,
he despised such dangers, and was baptized together with his wife Sarloth, and
several of his officers and courtiers. Sarloth was so penetrated with the
wonderful mysteries of religion, and so strongly affected with the great ideas
of eternity, that she walked in the paths of heroic perfection with a fervour
not inferior to that of the saints. Being some time after with child, she was
assured by St. Stephen, the protomartyr, in a dream, that she bore in her womb
a son who should complete the work she and her husband had begun, and abolish
idolatry in that nation. The child was born in 977, at Gran, the ancient
Strigonium, at that time the metropolis of the country, and on account of the
above-mentioned vision was christened Stephen. St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague,
who for some time preached the gospel to the Hungarians, and, according to the
German historians, baptized St. Stephen, had certainly no small share in the
honour of his education; and Theodatus, an Italian count of singular piety, was
his tutor; these two holy persons by their example and instructions were, under
God, the great instruments of his future sanctity. Geysa died in 997, and
Stephen, who had been chosen waywode—that is, leader of the army, or duke, some
time before, then took the reins of the government into his hands.
His first care was to
settle a firm peace with all the neighbouring nations. This being done, he
turned his thoughts wholly to root out idolatry, and as much as in him lay to
make Christ reign in the hearts of all his subjects. Performing himself the part
of a missionary, he often accompanied the preachers, and pathetically exhorted
his people to open their eyes to the divine truth. Many, however, were so
obstinately attached to the superstitions of their ancestors, as to take up
arms in defence of idolatry; and having at their head a count of great interest
and valour named Zegzard, with a numerous army, they laid siege to Vesprin. St.
Stephen placed his confidence in the Lord of Hosts, and prepared himself for
the engagement by fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer, invoking particularly the
intercession of St. Martin and St. George. Though inferior to the rebels in the
number of his forces, by the divine assistance, he gave them a total overthrow,
and slew their leader. To give to God the entire glory of this victory, he
built near the place where the battle was fought, a great monastery in honour
of St. Martin, called the holy hill; and besides estates in land, he bestowed
on it one-third part of the spoils. It is immediately subject to the holy see,
and is called in Hungary the Arch-abbacy. St. Stephen having quelled the
rebels, found himself at liberty to prosecute his design; which he did by
inviting into his dominions many holy priests and religious men, who, by their
exemplary lives and zealous preaching, sowed the seed of faith, civilized that
savage nation by the precepts of the gospel, built churches and monasteries,
and some of them obtained the crown of martyrdom.
The zealous prince founded
the archbishopric of Gran or Strigonium, and ten bishoprics, and sent Astricus,
or Anastasius, the newly elected bishop of Coloctz, to Rome, to obtain of Pope
Sylvester II. the confirmation of these foundations and of many other things
which he had done for the honour of God and the exaltation of his holy church;
and, at the same time, to beseech his holiness to confer upon him the title of
king, which his subjects had long pressed him to assume, and which he now only
asked to satisfy their desires, and that he might with more majesty and
authority accomplish his great designs for promoting the glory of God, and the
good of his people. Miceslas, duke of Poland, upon marrying a Christian
princess, the daughter of Boleslas, duke of Bohemia, had embraced the faith in
965. About thirty-four years after this, he sent an embassy to Rome to obtain
the title of king confirmed to him by the authority of the apostolic see.
Sylvester II., who was then pope, was disposed to grant his request, and
prepared a rich crown to send him with his blessing. 2 But the extraordinary zeal, piety, and wisdom
of St. Stephen deserving the preference, his holiness delivered this crown for him
to his ambassador Astric, together with the present of a cross, granting, by a
special privilege, that it should be carried before him in his armies. At the
same time he, by a bull, confirmed all the religious foundations which our holy
prince had made, and the elections of the bishops. St. Stephen went to meet his
ambassador upon his return, listened standing, with great respect, to the
pope’s bulls whilst they were read, and fell on his knees as often as the name
of his holiness was repeated. To express his profound sense of religion, and to
inspire all his subjects with a holy awe for whatever belonged to the divine
worship, he treated the pastors of the church with honour and respect. The same
prelate who had brought the crown from Rome, anointed and crowned him king with
great solemnity and pomp in the year 1000. 3
The good prince, by a
public act, and with extraordinary devotion, declared that he put all his
dominions under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and never
ceased most earnestly offering his daily prayers to implore her powerful
intercession for obtaining the divine blessing upon all his subjects. Whence,
in many medals and coins of this kingdom, she is styled patroness of Hungary.
It is incredible with what ardour the king exhorted his people, especially his
domestics, to the practice of all virtues. With a view to propagate on earth
the divine honour and praise beyond his own life, and to the end of time, he
filled Hungary with pious foundations. At Alba he built a stately church in
honour of the Mother of God, in which the kings of Hungary were afterwards both
crowned and buried. This city St. Stephen made his usual residence, whence it
is called Royal Alba, to distinguish it from Alba Julia, or Weissemberg, in
Transylvania. He founded, in old Buda, the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, and
in Rome on mount Cœlio, the church of St. Stephen, with a college of twelve
priests; also an inn and hospital on the Vatican-hill for the entertainment of
Hungarian pilgrims; and he built a church at Jerusalem; not to mention the
magnificent monastery of St. Bennet, and many other churches in Hungary.
Throughout all his dominions he commanded tithes to be paid to the churches,
though these are redeemed to this day in many places by the noblemen for a
certain sum of money.
St. Stephen, who would seek
no alliance but by which piety might be strengthened in his realm and family,
took to wife Gisela, sister to St. Henry, king of Germany, who was shortly
after crowned emperor; and that holy prince admirably seconded and assisted our
saint in all his pious designs. St. Stephen abolished many barbarous and
superstitious customs derived from the ancient Scythians, and by severe
punishments repressed blasphemy, murder, theft, adultery, and other public
crimes. To put a stop to incontinence and idolatry he commanded all persons to
marry, except religious and churchmen, and forbade all marriages of Christians
with idolaters. He was of most easy access to people of all ranks, and listened
to every one’s complaints without distinction or preference, except that he
appeared most willing to hear the poor, knowing them to be more easily
oppressed, and considering that in them we honour Christ, who being no longer
among men on earth in his mortal state to receive from us any corporal
services, has substituted and recommended to us the poor in his place and
right. The good king provided for their subsistence throughout his whole
kingdom, and took them, especially the helpless orphans and widows, under his
special protection, declaring himself their patron and father. Not content with
his general charities and care for all the indigent, he frequently went
privately about to discover more freely the necessities of any who might be
overlooked by his officers. One day it happened, that, whilst he was dealing
about his plentiful alms in disguise, a troop of beggars set upon him, threw
him down, beat him, plucked him by the beard and hair, and took away his purse,
seizing for themselves what he intended for the relief of many others. The king
esteemed himself happy to suffer in the service of his Redeemer, and addressed
himself in these words to the Blessed Virgin: “See, O queen of heaven, in what
manner I am requited by those who belong to your Son, my Divine Saviour. As
they are his friends, I receive with joy this treatment from their hands.” He
learned, however, from this accident no more to expose his person, but he
renewed his resolution never to refuse an alms to any poor person who asked
him. His nobles rallied him on this occasion; but he rejoiced in all
humiliations, and God was pleased to testify how agreeable his sincere and
heroic piety was, by conferring on him many extraordinary graces, with the
gifts of prophecy and many miraculous cures.
How difficult soever it may
seem to practise extraordinary severities and humiliations in the midst of a
court, and surrounded by the most flattering objects of softness and pride,
where such gospel maxims are seldom heard, yet the extraordinary fervour of our
saint found means for the exercise of both. He desired to serve and wash the
feet of poor men in public; but the fear of giving offence to his subjects,
whose minds were not yet framed to imbibe such ideas of a prince’s humility,
made him only do it privately. He lost no part of his time in vain amusements
or idle company; but divided himself between the duties of religion, and those
of his station. To the former, he regularly allotted many hours every day; and
the latter he sanctified by religious motives, and by the constant recollection
of his soul. Thus, if he was not able always to praise God with his tongue, he
did it without intermission by his life, all his actions being directed to the
same point of God’s holy will and greater glory. His charitable and zealous
application to all external duties of life, and to the government of his
kingdom; his alms-deeds, mildness, temperance, patience, and other virtues,
succeeding one another in their victories and repeated heroic acts, sanctified
his whole life, and made it, as it were, one uninterrupted sacrifice to God.
The least faults of frailty and inadvertence by which its perfection might be
impaired, he laboured to expiate by daily penance and tears. The shining
example of his virtue was a continual most powerful sermon to those who
conversed with him. His happy influence over his children, was most sensible in
the virtuous courses they pursued. St. Emeric, his eldest son, walked in his
steps with so much fervour as to be in his youth the admiration of Christendom.
Rising always at midnight he recited matins privately on his knees, pausing a
little in devout meditation at the close of every psalm. Many wonderful things
are related of his virtues and miracles; to comprise his character in one word,
nothing could be more amiable, more pious, or more accomplished than this young
prince. His father trained him up not only in the perfect practice of the most
heroic piety, but also formed him in the art of government.
St. Stephen’s
excellent code of laws, to this day the basis of the laws of Hungary, are
inscribed to his son, Duke Emeric. In fifty-five chapters the pious legislator
has comprised the wisest and most holy regulations of the state. He
pathetically exhorts his son to sincere humility (which he calls the sole
exaltation of a king), to patience, meekness, assiduous and devout prayer,
charity, compassion for the poor, the protection of all who are in distress,
&c. He forbids, on pain of severe punishment, all grievous public crimes,
especially of impiety and irreligion, as a violation of the Sunday or a
fast-day, talking in the church, a culpable neglect to call in the priests to
assist dying persons, &c. He commands the most religious respect to be paid
to all holy things, and to the clergy. 4 These wholesome laws he caused
to be promulgated throughout his dominions, and had them always most strictly
observed; as on the exact execution of the laws the tranquillity of the state
depends.
The
protection of his people engaged him sometimes in war, wherein he was always
victorious. The prince of Transylvania, his cousin, invaded his dominions; St.
Stephen defeated him in battle, and made him prisoner; yet gave him his
liberty, and restored him his dominions, requiring of him this only condition,
that the gospel should be allowed to be freely preached in them. The saint was
never the aggressor in any war; that with the Bulgarians was obstinate; but
they were at length overcome, and obliged to receive the laws which he
prescribed them. There is no saint whose virtue is not exercised by
tribulation. Sickness deprived St. Stephen of all his children. St. Emeric, the
eldest was carried off the last. He had then begun to sustain a great part of
the burden of the state, and to be both a comfort and an assistance to his
father. The interest of the state, and that of the infant church of his
kingdom, conspired with nature to make this stroke more severe; but the good
king bore the loss with entire resignation, adoring in it the holy will of God.
St. Emeric was canonized by Benedict IX. and is honoured among the saints on
the 4th of November. This affliction weaned the king’s heart more and more from
the world, and he desired, if it had been possible, to reserve to the care of
his own soul the remaining part of his life, that, being freed from all worldly
concerns, he might be preparing for his last passage. But, as the affairs of
both the church and state did not allow this, he continued to endure the toil
of business, knowing that he was accountable to God for the least neglect or
omission in the particular duties of his station towards his Creator, his
subjects, or himself. He endeavoured, however, to redouble his fervour in all
his religious exercises, and applied himself particularly to those which are
more immediately preparatory for a happy death, to which he principally
directed his devotions and charities.
Though brave and
expert in war, he had always been a lover of peace; but, from this time, he
took a resolution to spill no blood in war, in which he earnestly begged the
interposition of Divine Providence, which did not fail him. For to hostilities
he, after this, opposed no other arms than fasting, prayers, and tears, and by
them alone was ever victorious. The Bessi, a fierce nation of Bulgarians, the
most implacable enemies of the Hungarians, made a furious irruption into his
territories; but moved with veneration for the sanctity of the holy king, they
on a sudden repented of their enterprise, begged, and easily obtained his
friendship, and returned peaceably home. St. Stephen, by an act of justice,
caused some of his own subjects to be hanged on his frontiers, for having
plundered them in their retreat. After the death of our saint’s good friend St.
Henry, the emperor, his successor Conrad II. invaded Hungary with a powerful
army in 1030, and advanced so far, that St. Stephen was compelled to lead out
his army against him, though still trusting in God that the effusion of blood
would be prevented. All things seemed to be disposed for a decisive battle when
St. Stephen again recommended himself and his earnest desire of peace to the
Blessed Virgin; and to the surprise of all men, the emperor on a sudden turned
his back with his army, and without having executed any thing, marched home
into Germany with as great precipitation as if he had been defeated.
St. Stephen
laboured three years under a complication of painful distempers. During this
time four palatins, exasperated at the strict execution of justice which he
caused to be observed, entered into a conspiracy to take away his life. One of
them got into the king’s chamber in the night with a dagger under his cloak;
but let it fall in a fright upon hearing the king ask who was there? Seeing
himself discovered, he threw himself at the feet of his sovereign, and obtained
his pardon; but his accomplices were executed. The saint perceiving that his
last hour drew near, assembled his nobles, and recommended to them the choice
of a successor, obedience to the Holy See, and the practice of Christian piety.
He then again commended his kingdom to the patronage of the Blessed Virgin, and
after having received the sacraments of penance, the viaticum, and extreme
unction, happily expired on the feast of the Assumption of our Lady, the 15th
of August, in 1038, being threescore years old, of which he had reigned forty-one
from the death of his father, and thirty-eight from the time he had been
crowned king. His sacred remains were honoured with miracles, and forty-five
years after his death, by an order of the pope, at the request of the holy king
St. Ladislas, were enshrined and placed in a rich chapel which bears his name
within the great church of our Lady at Buda. He was canonized by Benedict IX.
in the manner described by Benedict XIV. 5 Innocent XI. appointed his festival on the 2nd
of September, in 1686, with an office of the whole church, the emperor Leopald
having on that day recovered Buda out of the hands of the Turks, after many
signal victories over those infidels. In Hungary his chief festival is kept on
the 20th of August, the day of the translation of his relics.
Virtue is the most
excellent dignity, and the only good of rational beings, as St. Austin observes. 6 Genius, learning, power, riches, and whatever
else a man enjoys are only good when made subservient to virtue. Hence the
ancient Stoics called such external goods conveniences, not good things,
because, said they, virtue alone deserves the name of good. 7 This is our glory, our riches, and our
happiness in time and eternity. To acquire and continually improve in ourselves
this inestimable treasure is the great business of our lives. Yet how careless
are the generality of mankind in this particular! Many spare no pains to
cultivate their minds with science, or to excel in accomplishments of the body,
and in every qualification for the world, yet neglect to reform and regulate
their heart. Half that attention which they give to their body or studies,
would make them perfect in virtue. An hour, or half an hour a day, employed in
holy meditation, pious reading, and self-examination would be of infinite
service in this most important and noble study. This would teach us the divine
maxims of virtue, inspire us with its sublime sentiments, and instruct us in
its exercises; and a constant attention and watchfulness in all our actions
would inure us to the practice, and ground us in perfect habits of it. Were we
but thus to learn well one virtue every year, we should soon be perfect saints.
Holy kings upon the throne never suffered any avocations or business to be an
impediment to this earnest application to the science of a Christian. Virtue no
sooner gains the empire in the hearts of men but it rules and sanctifies the
whole circle of their actions, makes all the employments of their state an
uninterrupted exercise of its various acts, and advances daily in fervour and
perfection.
Note 1. The Huns, far the most numerous and
famous of all the ancient barbarous nations, have subsisted above two thousand
years, and are unquestionably the same people with the present inhabitants of
Great Tartary, as is demonstrated by Joseph Assemani and Deguignes. Some of
their colonies are at this day possessed of China, Corea, Japan, and several
other kingdoms in the eastern parts of Asia; others, under the name of the
Turkish tribes, seized on Persia, and still reign there; others, who have been
called the Ottoman Turks, extinguished the power of the Saracen caliphs, to
whom they left only a limited religious authority in matters relating to the
Mahometan superstition, whilst upon the ruins of their monarchies in Syria and
Egypt, and of the Grecian empire, they erected the present Ottoman empire.
Other migrations of these Huns had the greatest share, next to the Goths, in
the destruction of the Roman empire in the West. See Histoire Générale
des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares Occidentaux, par M.
Deguignes, Interprète du Roy pour les Langues Orientales, &c., 4to. in five
tomes, Paris, 1756, 1757. In
this work, the learned author has obliged the world with a new and original
history of China, and these other Asiatic kingdoms, compiled with great care
and judgment from the most authentic Chinese and Arabian histories and
monuments.
The ancient Huns were divided into Asiatic and European; the latter
dwelt upon the banks of the Volga, and about the Palus Mœtis. The implacable
hatred which the Goths bore them, and the difference of these Huns, both from
the Goths and Normans, and from all the ancient German nations, both in
complexion and the frame of the body, and in dress, manners, and language,
demonstrate them to have been very different nations in their original
foundation. The skins of beasts served the Huns for clothes with the fur turned
outwards, as the Hungarians and Poles use to this day in their caps. The
goodness and beauty of these skins or furs made the distinctive ornaments of their
nobility, and the skins of martens (pelles murinæ) were sought after far and
near. (See Helmoldus, Chron. Slav. l. 1, c. 1, and Jos. Assemani, Comm. in
Kalend.) The Hungarian language is a dialect of that of the Huns, and differs
equally from the Sclavonian and Teutonic. Ammianus Marcellinus, (l. 31, c. 2.)
St. Jerom, (ep. Fab.) the Abbot Regino, the Annals of Metz. an. 889, &c.,
assure us the Huns and the Hungari came from Scythia beyond the Tanais, near
the foot of Mount Caucasus. Zonaras, Cedrenus, Eurapolates, Jornandes, and
Samocatta, call the Hungarians Huns and Turks. They therefore are mistaken, who
with George Eccard (Franciæ Orient. l. 31, n. 82,) pretend that the Hungarians
were of a Sclavonian or Sarmatian original.
Attila, the famous leader of the Huns in their greatest European
expedition, left them at his death, in 453, possessed of Pannonia. Soon after
this country fell a prey to the Goths, called Gepidæ, and afterwards to the
Hunni Abares, who were so called, according to Paulus Diaconus, from a king of
that name. They were driven from their original seats near the Volga, by a
tribe of the Turci, as Somocatta, Evagrius, and Theophanes mention; and broke
into Pannonia together with the Longobardi, whose king was called Auduin. This
prince’s son and successor Alboin, being invited by Narses into Italy, led
thither the Longobardi in 568, leaving all Pannonia to their allies the Abares,
as Paulus Diaconus relates, l. 1, de Gestis Longobard. Charlemagne extinguished
the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy in 774, after it had lasted two hundred
and six years under twenty-four kings; and also that of the Abares in Pannonia
in 799, after a furious war of eight years’ continuance, in which all the
princes and noblemen of that nation were slain, and most of the strong cities
levelled with the ground, as Eginhard relates in the life of Charlemagne. From
that time these Abares continued subject to the French or German empire till
the invasion of the Hunni Iguri, Hunnoguri, or Hungari. See Jos. Assemani. (in
Kalend. t. 1, par. 2, c. 6.) These were another nation of the Huns, so called,
either from Ogor their leader, or from their country Iguria, the same that is
at present known by the name of Jura, as Hebersteinius (Rer. Muscow. Comm. p.
63,) proves from the languages, manners, and many customs of the two nations at
this day. This province lies beyond the Hyperborean mountains, many miles from
Moscow, from the coasts of the frozen ocean towards Siberia, to Mount Caucasus,
as we learn from Paulus Jovius (l. de legatione ad Muscovit. p. 123,) and from
Gaugnini, who lived many years a commanding officer in those parts. (In
descript. Muscoviæ, p 167.) These Hungarians were driven from that country
about the year 680, by a numerous swarm of the Patzinacitæ from the borders of
Asia; and after wandering some years in the deserts about the Danube, where
they lived by fishing, hunting, and plundering other countries, they gathered
all their strength, and entering Pannonia in 889, defeated the imperial forces,
subdued the Hunni Abares, and settled themselves in that country, as the annals
of Metz and those of St. Bertin relate. (See Joseph Assemani Comm. in Kalendar.
Univ. t. 3, p. 2, c. 2, p. 220.) De Peysonnel, who was long French Consul in
Crim Tartary, and afterwards at Smyrna, and travelled over all these countries
to make observations on their antiquities, remarks, that the Hungarians, though
surrounded with nations most of which derive their dialects from the Sclavonian
or old Sarmatian, use a language which has no affinity with it, or with any
other known language in the world, except a sensible analogy with the
Circassian, spoken from the sea of Asoph to the Caspian sea. The Turks also
acknowledge an affinity between their language and the Hungarian, and call the Hungarians
their brothers. This is to be understood of the original words of their
primitive language; for the modern Turkish is chiefly composed of Persic and
Arabic, as may be seen in the modern dictionaries of the Turkish language,
printed at Vienna, principally that by Miniski of the Arabian, Persian, and
Turkish languages, at Vienna, in 1680, and reprinted at London by the care of
Mr. Jones of Oxford, in 1771. These Hungari are called by some of the Byzantine
historians, Magiars and Turks, which word signifies any vagabond people. The
ancient Scythians were in the middle ages called Huns, and often Turks; which
names they changed at home in later times into that of Tartars, this last
denomination being derived from the name of a famous great king Tatar or
Tartar, who reigned among them in Asia, and gave his name first to a particular
tribe among them near the confines of China. (See the new Universal History, t.
20, Jos. Assemani (loc. cit.) et Peysonnel Observ. Hist. et Geogr. in 4to.
Paris, 1763.) Jo. Pray, Annales Hunnorum, Avarum et Hungarorum, Viennæ, 1770.
fol. 4 vol.
Arpadus was leader and general of the Hungarians, when they settled
in Pannonia, from whom St. Stephen was the fifth in a lineal descent.
Constantine Porphyrogenetta (c. 40, 41,) describes the boundaries of their
conquests and kingdom to have been on the East Bulgaria and the Patzinacitæ,
who about the same time made themselves masters of the country towards the
mouth of the Danube and north to Valachia and Transylvania; on the west Moravia,
where then reigned Sphendoplocus; and beyond Belgrade the Dalmatians. (See
Joannes Eberhardi Fischeri Questiones Academicæ. 1. De Origine Hungarorum. 2.
De Gente et Nomine Tartarorum. 3.
De Nominibus variis Imperii Sinensis. 4. De Hyperboreis, Gottingæ, 8vo.)
Abulgasi informs us, that the original Tatars or Tartars inhabited the country
near the lake Boronor, now Kokoner, between the sandy deserts of Gobi and
Tibet, mentioned by Du Halde. Boro and Koko have
almost the same signification in the language of the Kalmouks, the present
inhabitants of that region, the descendants of these most ancient of the
Tartars. The white Tartars, who are employed by the Chinese in keeping their
wall, are a different people, inhabit the country from the eastern coast of the
Caspian sea to the borders of Siberia, speak the Turkish language, and are
Turks or Huns. All these were called Scythians. The great conqueror Gingiskan,
or rather Diskinchis-kan, was not a Tartar, but from Mogol. With an army partly
of Indians from Mogol, but chiefly of Tartars, of two millions of men, he
overran all the East, as the Armenian, Persic, and Arabic Annals inform us. (Ib.
Disquis. 2.) See F. Desericius, De Initiis et majoribus Hungarorum, Budæ, 1748;
and Deguignes, Hist. des Huns, l. 6, p. 512. [back]
Note 2. The Poles, Bohemians, Dalmatians,
and Istrians, are originally Sclavonians, who seized those countries in several
migrations. The ancient country of the Slavi or Slavonians lay in certain
provinces of that part of Sarmatia which is at present called Great Russia, or
Muscovy, as Joseph Assemani shows, (t. 1, part 2, c. 5, p. 292.) See D’Anville,
p. 32. These Slavi were a people very different from the rest of the Scythians
called Huns, no less than from the Goths, as the same learned author proves,
(ib. c. 8, et t. 2, c. 9,) though the Slavi have been sometimes confounded with
the Hunni. Lechus led a numerous colony of these Slavonians into Poland, became
the founder of that nation, and built Genesna about the year 550. His brother
Zechus settled another colony of the same people in Bohemia, expelling hence
the Marcomanni who in the reign of Augustus had subdued the Boii, a nation
which had been possessed of that country five or six hundred years, and whose
name it still retains. (ibid.) Miceslas duke of Poland died in the year 999,
whilst his ambassadors were at Rome. His son and successor Boleslas I. surnamed
Chabri or the Great, took the title of king of Poland in the year 1000, and was
acknowledged in that quality by the Emperor Otho III., the pope, &c. This
prince vanquished the Bohemians and Moravians, subdued Red Russia, took Kiow,
and raised Poland to that pitch of grandeur which it has ever since maintained,
and which received a great accession in 1316, by the marriage of Jagello,
called afterwards Uladislas V. duke of Lithuania, with Hedwige, heiress of
Poland. [back]
Note 3. This is expressly affirmed by
Ditmar, Turoczius, and all contemporary writers, and demonstrated by Stilting,
§ 19, p. 504, et § 20, p. 507, against Schwartzius and some other Protestants.
The salutary laws which St. Stephen enacted, and which were confirmed in a
general assembly of the bishops and noblemen of his kingdom, are recorded by
Stilting, § 34, p. 547, and others. [back]
Note 5. L. 1, De Servorum Dei Beatific. et Canoniz. c. 41. [back]
Note 6. L. 19, De Civ. Dei, c. 3, p. 544. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
IX: September. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
ST STEPHEN OF HUNGARY (A.D. 1038)
The people whom
we call Magyars came into the country of Hungary during the last years of the
ninth century, settling in the land around the Danube from several districts to
the east of it, under the general leadership of a chief called Arpad. They were
a fierce and marauding people and met Christianity in the course of their raids
into Italy, France and westward generally. St Methodius and others had already
planted the faith in Pannonia, but it was not until the second half of the
tenth century that the Magyars themselves began to pay any serious
consideration to the Church. Geza, the third duke (voivode) after Arpad, saw
the political necessity of Christianity to his country, and (encouraged by St
Adalbert of Prague) he was baptized and a number of his nobles followed his
example. But it was largely a conversion of expediency, and had the usual
result of such conversions: the Christianity of the converts was largely
nominal. An exception to this was Geza's son, Vaik, who had been baptized at
the same time as his father and been given the name of Stephen (Istvan); he was
then only about ten and so had not acquired pagan ways and fixed habits of
mind. In the year 995, when he was twenty, he married Gisela, sister of Henry,
Duke of Bavaria, better known as the Emperor St Henry II, and two years later
he succeeded his father as governor of the Magyars.
Stephen was soon engaged in
wars with rival tribal leaders and others; and when he had consolidated his
position he sent St Astrik, whom he designed to be the first archbishop, to
Rome to obtain Pope Silvester II's approval for a proper ecclesiastical
organization for his country; and at the same time to ask his Holiness to
confer upon him the title of king, which his nobles had long pressed him to
assume and which he now asked that he might with more majesty and authority
accomplish his designs for promoting the glory of God and the good of his
people. Silvester was disposed to grant his request, and prepared a royal crown
to send him with his blessing, acting no doubt in concert with political
representations from the Emperor Otto III who was then in Rome. At the same
time the pope confirmed the religious foundations which the prince had made and
the elections of bishops. St Stephen went to meet his ambassador upon his
return and listened, standing with great respect, to the pope's bulls whilst
they were read; to express his own sense of religion and to inspire his
subjects with awe for whatever belonged to divine worship, he always treated
the pastors of the Church with great honour and respect. The same prelate who
had brought the crown from Rome crowned him king with great solemnity in the
year 1001.[1]
Firmly to root Christianity
in his kingdom and to provide for its steady progress after his own time, King
Stephen established episcopal sees only gradually, as Magyar clergy became
available; Veszprem is the first of which there is reliable record, but within
some years Esztergom was founded and became the primatial see. At
Szekesfehervar he built a church in honour of the Mother of God, in which the
kings of Hungary were afterwards both crowned and buried. This city St Stephen
made his usual residence, whence it was called Alba Regalis to distinguish it
from Alba Julia in Transylvania. He also completed the foundation of the great
monastery of St Martin, begun by his father. This monastery, known as
Martinsberg or Pannonhalma, still exists, and is the mother house of the
Hungarian Benedictine congregation. For the support of the churches and their
pastors and the relief of the poor throughout his dominions he commanded tithes
to be paid. Every tenth town had to build a church and support a priest; the
king himself furnished the churches. He abolished, not without violence,
barbarous and superstitious customs derived from the former religion and by
severe punishments repressed blasphemy, murder, theft, adultery and other
public crimes. He commanded all persons to marry except religious and
churchmen, and forbade all marriages of Christians with idolators. He was of easy
access to people of all ranks, and listened to everyone's complaints, but was
most willing to hear the poor, knowing them to be more easily oppressed and
considering that in them we honour Christ who, being no longer among men on
earth in His mortal state, has recommended to us the poor in His place and
right. It is said that one day, while the king was distributing alms in
disguise, a troop of beggars crowding round him knocked him down, hustled him,
pulled at his beard and hair, and took away his purse, seizing for themselves
what he intended for the relief of many others. Stephen took this indignity
humbly and with good humour, happy to suffer in the service of his Saviour, and
his nobles, when they heard of this, were amused and chaffed him about it; but
they were also disturbed, and insisted that he should no more expose his
person; but he renewed his resolution never to refuse an alms to any poor
person that asked him. The example of his virtue was a most powerful sermon to
those who came under his influence, and in no one was it better exemplified
than in his son, Bd Emeric, to whom St Stephen's code of laws was inscribed.
These laws he caused to be promulgated throughout his dominions, and they were
well suited to a fierce and rough people newly converted to Christianity. But
they were not calculated to allay the discontent and alarm of those who were
still opposed to the new religion, and some of the wars which St Stephen had to
undertake had a religious as well as a political significance. When he had
overcome an irruption of the Bulgarians he undertook the political organization
of his people. He abolished tribal divisions and divided the land into
"counties", with a system of governors and magistrates. Thus, and by
means of a limited application of feudal ideas, making the nobles vassals of
the crown, he welded the Magyars into a unity; and by retaining direct control
over the common people he prevented undue accumulation of power into the hands
of the lords. St Stephen was indeed the founder and architect of the
independent realm of Hungary. But, as Father Paul Grosjean, Bollandist, has
remarked, to look at him otherwise than against his historical background gives
as false an impression as to think of him as a sort of Edward the Confessor or
Louis IX. And that background was a very fierce and uncivilized one.
As the years passed,
Stephen wanted to entrust a greater part in the government to his only son, but
in 1031 Emeric was killed while hunting. "God loved him, and therefore He
has taken him away early", cried St Stephen in his grief. The death of
Emeric left him without an heir and the last years of his life were embittered
by family disputes about the succession, with which he had to cope while
suffering continually from painful illness. There were four or five claimants,
of whom one, Peter, was the son of his sister Gisela, an ambitious and cruel
woman, who since the death of her husband had lived at the Hungarian court. She
had made up her mind that her son should have the throne, and shamelessly took
advantage of Stephen's ill-health to forward her ends. He eventually died, aged
sixty-three, on the feast of the Assumption 1038, and was buried beside Bd
Emeric at Szekesfehervar. His tomb was the scene of miracles, and forty-five
years after his death, by order of Pope St Gregory VII at the request of King
St Ladislaus, his relics were enshrined in a chapel within the great church of
our Lady at Buda. Innocent XI appointed his festival for September 2 in 1686,
the Emperor Leopold having on that day recovered Buda from the hands of the
Turks.
There are two early lives
of St Stephen, both dating apparently from the eleventh century, and known as
the Vita major and the Vita minor. These texts have been edited in Pertz, MGH.,
Scriptores, vol. xi. A certain Bishop Hartwig early in the twelfth century
compiled from these materials a biography which is printed in the Acta
Sanctorum, September, vol. ii. Other facts concerning the saint may be gleaned
from the Chronica Ungarorum edited in Endlicher's Monumenta, vol. i. Although
the supposed bull of Silvester II is certainly spurious, and although very
serious doubts have been raised as to the genuineness of the crown alleged to
have been sent by the pope, still there does seem to be evidence of special powers
conferred by papal authority which were equivalent to those of a legate a
latere. The belief, however, that St Stephen was invested with the title of
"Apostolic King" is altogether without foundation. See e.g. the
article of L. Kropf in the English Historical Review, 1898, pp. 290-295. A very
readable, but rather uncritical, life by E. Horn (1899) has appeared in the
series "Les Saints". For more reliable and detailed information we
have to go to such Hungarian authorities as J. Paulers, Mgr Fraknoi and Dr
Karácsonyi. In a later volume of the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. ii, pp.
477-487, the Bollandists, when dealing with the life of Bd Emeric, have
discussed many points which have a bearing on the history of the king, his
father. Among the publications marking the ninth centenary of the death of St
Stephen were F. Banfi, Re Stefano il Santo (1938), and B. Hóman Szent István
(1938); the last has been translated into German (1941). See also Archivum
Europae centro-orientalis, vol. iv (1938); and C. A. Macartney, The Medieval
Hungarian Historians (1953).
[1] The alleged bull of
Pope Silvester granting the title of Apostolic King and Apostolic Legate to St
Stephen, with the right to have a primatial cross borne before him, is a
forgery, probably of the seventeenth century. The upper part of the crown sent
by the pope, fitted on to the lower part of a crown given to King Geza I by the
Emperor Michael VII, is preserved at Budapest.
Voir aussi : http://www.clio.fr/BIBLIOTHEQUE/saint_etienne_de_hongrie_ou_l_ancrage_des_magyars_a_l_ouest.asp
