BISHOP HARTVIC ON ST. STEPHEN OF
HUNGARY
The Life of King Stephen of
Hungary was written by Bishop
Hartvic under King Coloman (1096-1116), between 1112 and 1116. This was
in fact the third of St. Stephen. The first Life was composed between
1077 and 1083 (LifeVita Maior), shortly before the canonization of St.
Stephen (1083). A second one appeared at the beginning of Coloman's
reign (Vita
Minor). Hartvic's work received
the approval of Pope Innocent III in 1201 and became the basis of
liturgical readings. Hartvic's Stephen is a king offering himself and
his kingdom to the Virgin Mary, who successfully protected her
patrimony against an attack from the German emperor Conrad II in 1030.
Translation from Nora Berend, "Hartvic: Life of King Stephen of Hungary,"
in Medieval Hagiography. An
Anthology,
ed. by Thomas Head (New York/London, 2000), pp. 379-396.
[...]
Nor should it be passed over in silence that, to dispel all doubt, lest
perchance the above-mentioned vision, having appeared only to the
husband, should seem to lack credibility, divine grave wished also to
console his wife, who was near giving birth, by a similar vision. For
there appeared to her the blessed Stephen, Levite and protomartyr,
adorned in the distinctive Levitical habit, who began to talk to her
thus: "Woman, trust in the Lord, and be assured, for you will give
birth to a son, to whom firts from this people a crown and kingdom is
due; and give him my name." To whom the astonished woman responded:
"Who are you, my lord, and futhermore by what name are you called?" "I
am," he sai, "Stephen protomartyr, who was the first to suffer
martyrdom for the name of Christ." And, having said that, he
disappeared.
4. In the meantime, as foretold bt the Lord, the son of the ruler was
born, whom, according to the prophet, the Lord had known before he was
conceived in the womb, and to whom, before he was born, He had given
the name of His protomartyr. Bishop Adalbert, beloved by God, anointed
him with the baptismal chrism according to the truth of his belief. The
name Stephen was given him, which we do not believe to have been
contrary to the purpose of God. Indeed "Stephanus" in Greek means
"crown" in Latin. For God wanted to crown him in this world to royal
power, and determined to redeem him in the future one by the crown of
everlasting beatitude, that he might receive unfailing glory after the
yoke of this life.
[...]
5. After the death of his father, Stephen, still an adolescent, by the
favor of the princes nad common people was laudably raised to the seat
of his father and began with an ardent spirit to be the defender of
truth, because although he was in the bloom of his adolescence, he did
not have his heart in his mouth, but his mouth in his heart [Sir
21:26]. Not forgetting the Holy Scriptures, for which he was zealous
above all, he kept judgment and justice before his eyes, according to
the words of Solomon: "The wise man also may hear discipline and
increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire government"
[Prov 1:5]. Thus showing himself to be God's faithful steward [Lk
12:42] in all his mandates, he began to consider in his own mind how he
could deliver the people subject to him to the worship of one God. But
because he considered that without the alliance of neighboring peoples
he could not do this, he faithfully strengthened the peace established
with the people of surrounding provinces, so that whatever he pondered
in his mind, he would be able to complete more securely in the young
implantation of Christianity.
6. But the enemy of all good things, the devil, full of envy and
malice, stirred up an internal war against him, in order to disturb the
holy plan of Christ's champion, for at his instigation the pagan
commoners, refusing to submit their necks to the yoke of the Christian
faith, tried with their leaders to withdraw themselves from his rule.
They began to destroy his cities, lay waste his estates, plunder his
lands, chase away the servants of the Church, and taunt--I should be
silent about the rest--even [the king] himself. And when they did not
want to shun their perverse way, and their fury was not satiated, the
leader himself [King Stephen], trusting in eternal virtue, advanced
with a multitude of his armt under the banner of the prelate Martin
[St. Martin of Tours, ca. 316-397, who was born in Pannonia, modern-day
Hungary], beloved by God, and of the holy martyr George, in order to
overcome the madness of the enemy. By chance in those days they
besieged the city called Veszprem in the vernacular, turning this into
his shame, that is, they established themselves in the place where
there used to be access to communication with the leader's court, so
that entering the other fortifications they were to occupy would be
found easier. But he rose against them, led by divine mercy, and they
fought, he trusting in faith, they only in arms. Finally, defeating the
enemy, some of them having been killed and others captured, the
victorious leader took home the gifts of the victory with his troops.
[...]
But because Pannonia gloried in the birth of the blessed prelate
Martin, and it was under the protection of his merits that the man
faithful to Christ, as I already said, wrought a victory over the
enemy, reserving nothing of their things for his own needs, and keeping
counsel with those beloved by God, he began to build a monastery
dedicated to him [St. Martin of Tours], next to the patrimony of the
holy prelate, in the place called the Holy Mountain [Pannonhalma], which St. Martin,
when he still lived in Pannonia, assigned to himself as a place of
prayer; he enriched it by lands and revenues and all the necessary
things, and made it similar to bishoprics by his own judgment with a
tithe from the victors, ordering that tithes be given from all their
means in such a strict way that if someone should have happened to have
ten children, he was to give the tenth offspring to the monastery of
Saint Martin.
[...]
23. [...] Thus that auspicious day arrived, very soon made more
auspicious through his death, and the congregation of bishops and
clergy, the foremost troops of stewards and important attendants stood
encircling the place where the king, beloved by God, lying in their
midst, having accepted the sacrament of spiritual unction, restored his
holy sould by the viaticum of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in the year 1033 of the Incarnation of the Lord, and gave it
into the hand of the perpetual Virgin and holy angels, to be brought to
the peace of eternal celestial beatitude. [...] People assembled for
his funeral procession from every region of Pannonia, the body was
taken to the royal seat, that is Alba [Székesfehérvár]
and because the church, built by him to the honor of the blessed Virgin
was not yet consecrated, the prelates, having deliberated, decided
first to consecrate the basilica, and then to commit the body [of
Stephen] to the earth. having accomplished the ceremony of
consecration, the holy body was placed in a sarcophagus of white marble
in the middle of the building, where for several years the Lord
exhibited countless favors for his merits to many who suffered
troubles, had fever, proclaimed their affliction and misery, and
endured judgment. Often at night, the melody of the song of angels was
heard by many, and even more often the sweetness of the most pleasant
scent spread to all corners of the church.
[...]
25. A certain youth, all his limbs weakened, suffering paralysis for
twelve years who was without the use of his hands and feet, who was
carried there with the aid of his parents, having received the cure of
all his body, was the first of the signs [i.e., the first miracle
taking place at St. Stephen's tomb]. Running to the altar far from
sluggishly, he increased the joy of all those shouting praises to
Christ. And another seven-year-old boy, who had crawled on his hands
and knees from birth, because of contracted sinews, was brought by his
parents, full of faith, to be helped by the blessed man; they
prostrated themselves next to the tomb and laid him down with them, to
ask for grace. They immediately obtained it; they marveled that the
contraction of the sinews stretched in their son, and everyone seeing
him walking with his knees and soles having become firm, glorified the
name of Christ in the merits of the blessed man by praiseworthy
acclamation.
[...]
27. A certain monk, by the name Mercurius, who, in the clerical order
was the guardian of the treasury of the perpetual Virgin [the treasury
of the Basilica of the Holy Virgin in
Székesfehérvár], and for the love of the heavenly
home renounced the world, was sent away far from there by royal rebuke
in that hour when the tomb [of St. Stephen] was opened, lest he carry
off something from the holy relics. As he was sitting in the choir with
a sad face, a certain young man dressed in white clothes gave him a
rolled up piece of cloth, saying: "I entrust to you to preserve, and
when the time comes to reveal." After the completion of the sacred
office, the monk unfolded the cloth in the corner of the building, and
seeing the intact hand of the man of God [St. Stephen] with the ring of
marvelous craftsmanship, he got frightened; and without anyone's
knowledge, he brought it with him to the monastery which had been
commended to his governing, awaiting the time foretold to him from
Christ by the youth. Here for a long time he alone undertook the
guarding and watching of the treasure buried in the field, afterward he
made the founder of that monastery aware of it, finally at the approach
of the time when it had to be declared, he brought it to the notice of
the king. The king immediately, joined by bishops and the chief lords
of Hungary, obtaining there many favors of miracles from Christ,
appointed the day of celebration for elevating the right hand of God's
man [The hand of
St. Stephen is now the main relic in the basilica dedicated to him
in Budapest]