dimanche 2 septembre 2012

Saint ÉTIENNE de HONGRIE, roi et confesseur


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. 

C'est de leur fils cadet saint Émeric qu'il nous est parvenu le plus d'informations.


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.

[2] Esztergom, sur la rive droite du Danuble, est appelée Gran par les Allemands.

[3] Etienne se dit en grec Stephanos, ce qui signifie couronné.

[4] La Pannonie (le pays du blé) est la plaine fertile qui s’étend entre Danuble et Norique.

[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.

SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/08/16.php


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).

Leçons des Matines (avant 1960)

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


Naissance de saint Étienne dans Chronica Hungarorum, XIVe siècle

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

First King of Hungary, b. at Gran, 975; d. 15 August, 1038.

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 4. Decreto 2, c. 4; Decreto 1, c. 2, 3. [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]

Note 7. Ib. l. 9, c. 4, p. 220. [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.



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