STEFANO I, king of HUNGARY, saint. — Son of Prince Géza, b. about 969; baptized together with his father in 973 or 974, he succeeded him in 997. He was crowned with the crown received from Pope Silvester II at Christmas 1000, after defeating in a hard-fought battle Koppány, of the Árpád dynasty, who disputed his succession.
He continued his father’s policy, maintaining peaceful relations with the West and working for the conversion of the Hungarian people to Christianity. There is, however, a fundamental difference between S. and his father. Géza acted for political reasons, whereas S. was motivated by profound religious devotion. His ideal was the one traced by s. Agostino: to be a just, pious, and peaceful king. His power was unlimited, but he never became a tyrant because he voluntarily subjected himself to the commandments of religion, to the laws, and to the teachings of the Church. In organizing the Kingdom he looked to Western models, especially that of the Carolingian Kingdom, but he did not imitate them slavishly: the institutions transplanted from the West to Hungary acquired a character of their own. The two fundamental aspects of S.’s state—the system of government centralized in the hands of the king and the patrimonial foundation of the state—corresponded to Hungarian tradition. S. was also one of the greatest and most vigorous reformers in Hungarian history. He transformed his people politically, socially, and religiously. Yet he knew how to preserve everything that was valuable and compatible with the Christian religion. “Each people lives according to its own laws,” S. says in the introduction to the collection of his laws, and he also admonished his son in the Admonitiones that every people must have the freedom to live according to its own laws.
S. organized not only the state but also the Church in Hungary, for whose supreme direction he founded two archbishoprics (Esatergom and Kalocsa) and eight bishoprics (Veszprém, Pécs, Csanád, Vác, Győr, Eger, Nagyvárad, Gyulafehérvár). His appointment as papal legate, however, is a legend created in the 12th century, when, after the Gregorian reforms, the powers exercised by S. in organizing the Church and appointing bishops could no longer be conceived except on the basis of a special authorization from the Pope. In S.’s time, state and Church were not yet separate, and both depended solely on the king. This did not, however, entail the subordination of the interests of the Church to political interests. S.’s earthly state did not suppress the Church but helped and defended it, and had the high mission of educating and preparing its subjects to attain eternal happiness.
No one else influenced the history of Hungary as greatly and as favorably as he did. For centuries the Hungarian people regarded him not only as the founder of the state, but also as a guide from whom they could always draw instruction and example, strength and assistance for resisting in troubled times. The importance of S.’s Kingdom, however, went beyond the Hungarian frontier. The Danubian basin, which had previously been the final stopping place of nomadic peoples and from which the West could most readily be attacked, became, thanks to his work, a barrier protecting the West. S., so conscious of the individuality of each people, was also aware of the unity of Europe and of the Christian world. He built churches not only in Hungary but also in Rome and Byzantium. He wanted Hungary to serve as an intermediary between West and East. He greatly favored Western pilgrims on their journey to the Holy Land, thereby earning not only the gratitude of the pilgrims themselves but also that of the great abbot of Cluny, Odilo. In 1030 he defeated the army of Emperor Conrad II, who had invaded Hungary. S. died in 1038 and was canonized in 1083 together with his son Emmeric and his chief collaborator, Gherardo. In the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on 15 August, although the feast is celebrated on 2 September.