The crown of St. Stephen |
STEPHEN I (975-1038). Vaik, son of the Magyar voivod (duke) of Geza in Hungary, he was born at Esztergom and baptized in 985 when he was ten, at the same time as his father, and christened Stephen. He married Gisela, sister of Duke Henry III of Bavaria (who was to become Emperor Henry II in 1002) and become ruler of the Magyars on his father's death in 997. Through a series of wars against rival leaders who opposed his Christianization policies, he consolidated the country and in 1001 was crowned the first King of Hungary with a crown. sent to him by Pope Sylvester II, the famous crown of St. Stephen captured in World War II by the American army and returned to Hungary by the United States in 1978. Stephen organized a hierarchy under St. Astrik (also known as Anastasius), who became Hungary's first archbishop and began establishing sees, building churches, and ordering tithes to be paid for their support. Stephen finished building St. Martin's Monastery (Pan-nonhalma), begun by his father, inaugurated widespread reforms, including a new legal code and a reorganization of the government in the kingdom, ruled wisely, and was very generous to the poor. He united the Magyars, made the nobles vassals to him, and was the founder of an independent Hungary. His later years were embittered by squabbles about the succession (his only son, Bl. Emeric, had died in a hunting accident in 1031). Stephen died at Szekesfehervar, Hungary, on August 15, and was canonized by Pope Gregory VII in 1083, when his relics were enshrined at the Church of Our Lady in Buda. August 16. (feast day) |
