Saint Stephen of Hungary

Saint Stephen was the first king of Hungary. The Roman Martyrology says that he received the crown from Pope Sylvester II, spread the Christian faith among the Hungarians, organized the Church in his kingdom, and ruled his subjects justly and peacefully. He was the husband of Blessed Gisela and the father of Saint Emeric. The Church commemorates him on August 16.

He was born in Esztergom, the son of Prince Géza, under whose rule Christianity began to spread among the Hungarians. The exact year of his birth is not known; dates from 969 to 980 are given. His name was Vajk, and at baptism he received the name Stephen, after the first martyr, the patron of the diocese of Passau. According to tradition, he was baptized by Saint Adalbert. He married Gisela, the sister of Duke Henry of Bavaria, the future emperor, whom the Church venerates as a saint. After his father’s death, in 997, he took up the rule.

Through Abbot Astrik he turned to Sylvester II, who at the end of the year 1000 sent him a royal crown. John Paul II recalled that Stephen was crowned with it at Christmas of that year and accepted it not as an honor but as a service. The king founded ten dioceses and built cathedrals, supported monastic life, and issued laws. He also founded houses for Hungarian pilgrims, among them one in Rome near the tomb of Saint Peter. The Roman Martyrology records that at his request the hermits Andrew Zorard and Benedict came from Poland to Hungary.

Of his children only Emeric reached adolescence. His father cared for his education and entrusted him to teachers, among them Saint Gerard, the future bishop of Csanád. For his son he prepared instructions on faith and government, known as the Admonitions. In them he wrote, among other things, that a country of one language and one custom is weak, and he urged that foreigners be welcomed kindly. Emeric, however, was killed while hunting on September 2, 1031.

After his son’s death, disputes arose over the succession to the throne. The king’s kinsman Vazul, accused of a conspiracy, was blinded; old accounts describe the affair, and Stephen’s own part in it, in different ways. The king named his sister’s son, Peter Orseolo, as his successor. Left without a direct heir, as John Paul II recalled, he placed his people under the protection of Mary, the Great Lady of the Hungarians, offering her his crown. He died in Székesfehérvár on August 15, 1038, the solemnity of the Assumption, and was buried beside his son.

In 1083 King Ladislaus, during the pontificate of Pope Gregory VII, proclaimed Stephen, his son Emeric, and Bishop Gerard saints in Székesfehérvár. In Hungary Stephen’s principal feast falls on August 20, the anniversary of the raising of his relics. His right hand, venerated as a relic, is kept in Budapest. The Hungarians honor him as the patron of their homeland.