Saint of the Day - St. Stephen of Hungary (Aug. 16th)
Channel: House of Prayers for Everyone (HOPE)
Date: 15/08/2023

In today's video, we feature St. Stephen of Hungary, the monarch who led his country to embrace the Christian faith during the 11th century.

Saint Stephen was born with a pagan name, Vajk. Though his birth date is uncertain, it is highly believed that he was born in the year 975.

Yet even before his birth, his mother Duchess Sarolt, had a vision in which the original Saint Stephen – the Church's first martyr – told her that she would bore a son who would evangelize their land.

Along with her husband, Duke Géza, the Grand Prince of the Hungarians, the couple is believed to have been converted and baptized by the bishop Saint Adalbert of Prague. The same bishop saint also baptized, Vajk, baptizing him with the name, Stephen, after the saint whom his mother have seen in her vision.

While his father, Duke Géza, promoted the spread of Christianity among his subjects, it was under Stephen when Christianity flourished.

Even after succeeding his father in 997, Stephen had to fight for the throne against large numbers of pagan warriors led by his relative, Koppány. 

After winning this war with the assistance of foreign knights including Vecelin, Hont and Pázmány, and native lords, Stephen established laws favoring Christianity over paganism, and sent an emissary to Rome with a request for the Pope to proclaim him as the rightful King. Pope Sylvester II accepted the request, sending him a crown and a gold processional cross, while also giving Stephen certain religious privileges. The coronation of Stephen took place on January 1st in 1001. 

Yet even after his proclamation as the King, he still has to wage wars against semi-independent tribes and chieftains until he finally unified the Carpathian Basin. He protected the independence of his kingdom by forcing the invading troops of Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II, to withdraw from Hungary in 1030. After conclusively defeating an alliance of rival pagan nobility, he used their acquired wealth to build a monastery, and invited clergy to convert the people. 

He showed great diligence as king, while devoting the rest of his time to his religious duties – including charity toward the poor and sick, as well as the worship of God – and to his household. Gisela, Stephen's wife, was the sister of the ruler later canonized as the Holy Roman Emperor Saint Henry II.

Greatly devoted to the Virgin Mary, Stephen had several churches built in her honor both in Hungary and outside the kingdom. Her intercession is credited with preventing a war between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire under Conrad II, and stopping an assassination plot against Stephen himself.

The Hungarian king also established a monastery in Jerusalem, and set up institutions to aid pilgrims in other major cities. Stephen fulfilled the Pope's charge to use his royal authority for the good of the Church.

Suffering came to the king, however, when only one of his children survived to adulthood. Stephen's only living son Emeric received a strong Catholic upbringing, and was expected to succeed his father. But the son died before the father after a hunting accident in 1031.

Emeric was later canonized as a saint in his own right, and Stephen eventually came to rejoice that his son had been permitted to enter God's presence before him. The king's final years, however, were marked by illness as well as a succession dispute among his relatives.

On August 15, 1038, the feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Stephen delivered his final words to leaders of the Church and state, telling them to protect and spread the Catholic faith.

To the Virgin Mary, the king directed one of his final prayers: “To thee, O Queen of heaven, and to thy guardianship, I commend the Holy Church, all the bishops and the clergy, the whole kingdom, its rulers and inhabitants; but before all, I commend my soul to thy care.”

Saint Stephen of Hungary died that same day. He was buried alongside his son St. Emeric, and the two were canonized together in 1083.

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Images attributed to the following:
- By Unknown author - Own work, scanned by Szilas from A magyar Szent Korona by Tóth Endre, Szelényi Károly, Kossuth 2000, Budapest, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
- By Márk Kálti - Chronicon Pictum, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
-By Ferenc Nádasdy - nadasdykronika.atw.hu, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
- By Unknown author - Wikimedia Commons