St. Stephen / Szt. István
Hungary's first Christian King


 

Who was  St. Stephen, or Szt. István, Hungary's first Christian King?

He was born in the year 975, and given the name Vajk (in English Vaik). Vajk's father was the Duke Geyza. After Germany defeated Hungary in 955, Geyza realized that the loosely organized peoples of Hungary needed to unite and to adopt more European ways in order to prosper. He forced many of the nobles into "unity" and sent out for Christian teachers from the west. He, along with his entire family, were baptized as Christians. Vajk, who was 10 years old at that time, took the Biblical name of István, or Stephen. István married Gisela, whose brother became Henry II of the Holy Roman empire. Many powerful knights came along with Gisela and became some of István's strongest supporters. As was usual, he gave them all big tracts of land and used their armaments to put down any independent-minded nobles.

Until that time, the leader of the Magyars (who were the dominant ethnic group of Hungary) had been a position gained by election within the ruling family. Some of István's older relatives resented being bypassed without any election (especially his older brother Koppány - he wanted the old pagan ways back) and decided to revolt. István was ruthless in crushing them. This is how he became the first Christian King of Hungary. Stephen (István) was crowned king of Hungary on Christmas Day of the year 1000, and reigned till the year 1038. The legend tells that he received the crown kept at the National Museum, which actually dates back to the 12th century.

                                                    

István was named a "saint" in 1083 because he "Christianized" his new country. He built many churches, established bishops and archbishops, and gave land to support the church. He also brought in Benedictine monks to teach the people. When the pagans tried to resist the new religion...he crushed them and forced them to convert.

Naturally this type of "conversion" wasn't too meaningful to the new converts. When they didn't attend church as the king wanted, he ordered that the market day was to held only in church towns on Sunday. His reasoning was that if people were drawn close to a church, more of them would actually attend. (the name for Sunday is still called "Vasárnap" here...vásár=market + nap=day) This forward thinking king also advised his son Emeric (Imre) to "Make strangers welcome in this land, let them keep their languages and their customs, for weak and fragile is the realm which is based on a single language or on a single set of customs." He himself mostly followed his own advice and the result was somewhat more unity in Hungary than was found in neighboring Balkan countries.

Szt. István expected and wanted his son Emeric to succeed him to the throne, but sadly he was killed in a hunting accident (a wounded boar killed him). As might be expected, his nephews soon began to plot to take over the throne and even tried to kill István. This, and an illness, made his last days bitter. Hungarians have a holiday for Szt. István every year on August 20, and almost every city in Hungary has a street named after him, and many also have statues of him. (in fact, we ourselves live on a Szt. István utca and a statue of him is right across the street!)

 

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