The Order of St Stephen of Hungary

Other than in Hungary itself, where it is observed on August 20th, the day of the translation of his relics - today is the feast of St Stephen of Hungary, the first Christian King of that country, who died in 1038. There is an online life of him here.

   

My posts about him from previous years can be read at St Stephen of Hungary and  The Holy Crown of Hungary from 2010 and St Stephen of Hungary from 2011.

St Stephen of Hungary
Nineteenth century statue at the Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest

Image:judgedredd on Flickriver

As principal patron of the kingdom after the Virgin Mary, to whom he entrusted it on his deathbed, it is not surprising that the chivalric order of the Habsburg Kings of Hungary was under his patronage. Ther had been at least two earlier orders of chivalry founded by Kings of Hungary. In 1326 King Charles Robert (Charles I or Carobert )  instituted the Order of George, which as a chivalric confraternity has manage dto survive to the present day through arather curious descent. The website of its British branch, which includes a history and the text of the foundation document can be seen here.       

In 1408 King Sigismund founded the Order of the Dragon, of which there is a history here. Its foreign knights included King Henry V, but it disappeared after 1526, although, as you will read on the link, it has left a familiar reference in modern popular culture. In 1916 there was, I understand, a brief refoundation by King Charles IV at the time of his coronation.

In 1764 the Empress Maria Theresa - technically and literally King Maria Theresa in Hungary - founded the Order of St Stephen of Hungary as a national Order for the Apostolic Kingdom. There is a handsomely illustrated account, which includes a list of recipients here. 

It must have been one of the first such orders to have three classes Knights Grand Cross, Knights Commander and Knights, rather than simply being a confraternity of Knights around the Sovereign. As Hungary had a sizeable Protestant population membership was not, like the Golden Fleece, restricted to Catholics. As a result it was the most senior Habsburg Order that could be conferred on rulers such as King Edward VII and King George V or Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Diamond Star of a Knight Grand Cross

Image: Wikipedia

Mantle and robe of a Knight Grand Cross with the collar

Image Wikipedia

St Stephen of Hungary

Today is the feast of St Stephen of Hungary, about whom I posted last year in St Stephen of Hungary and in The Holy Crown of Hungary.

The reliquary containing "The Holy Right", the hand of St Stephen

St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest

Image: Curious Expeditions photostream on Flickr

So talking of Hungary and Christendom leads, in the way these things do, to this rather curious story about the prospects for Anglicanism in the Apostolic Kingdom.

Peterborough

The church at which my friends were received in Peterborough was The Sacred Heart and St Oswald. I was delighted to find a modern church which by its dedication revived an ancient devotion in the city.

The story can be found in St Bede's Ecclesiastical History of how St Oswald, King of Northumbria 633-641 not only sent out the remains of a feast to the beggars outside, but ordered that the silver plate on which the food was carried be also broken up and given to the poor. His guest, St Aidan, who sensed that Oswald was not long for this world, was so moved that he took the king's right arm and blessed it, with the prayer that it should never decay. When, not long after Oswald was killed in battle at Oswestry by King Penda of Mercia his corpse was hacked to pieces by the victors and displayed. His head eventually returned to the north and is now in the coffin of St Cuthbert at Durham, carried thither by the monks of Lindisfarne when they fled the Vikings. Other relics went to Bardney abbey in Lincolnshire.

St Owald's right arm, incorrupt as a result of St Aidan's prayer, eventually came to Peterborough, and was the principal relic of the abbey. It was kept in a chapel in the south transept of the monastic church, and still venerated by pilgrims, until the dissolution of the abbey in 1539 and the later establishment of the diocese in 1541. What happened to the Holy Arm thereafter appears unrecorded. To get some idea of such a royal relic look at my recent post about the "Holy Right" of St Stephen of Hungary here.

St Oswald,
pray for us!

Photo: De Cura Animarum

In the modern church hall there were pictures from a parish pilgrimage to Lindisfarne and Durham, so there is clearly an awareness of the continuing link with St Oswald and a wish to share that with parishioners.

St Stephen of Hungary

Today is the feast of St Stephen of Hungary - except in Hungary itself where it is celebrated on August 20th, which is said to be the day of the translation of his remains to Buda. For a variety of reasons I have always found the history of the Apostolic Kingdom of interest, and so I thought I would share some details about St Stephen in life, in death and in tradition. I have based this post, with some additions and editing, on John Dillon's Medieval Religion discussion group post from last year. St Stephen (d. 1038). Vaik was the son of the first Christian ruler of Hungary, grand prince Géza, with whom he was baptized at perhaps the age of ten. At his baptism he received the Christian name by which he is known (in Hungarian, István). Géza, who was an innovator in several important respects, saw to it that Stephen married into the ruling family of Bavaria; he also substituted male primogeniture for the seniorate as a principle of succession, thus making Stephen his heir apparent. After Géza's death in 997 Stephen won a succession struggle and proceeded to consolidate his rule over the Magyar clans, taking the title of king in about the year 1001. Traditionally it has been held that in 1000 he received his crown from Pope Sylvester II Stephen also consolidated Christianity in Hungary, ordering the building of churches across the kingdom and the collection of tithes to support their priests, establishing a diocesan structure under an archbishop, and forbidding intermarriage between Christians and others. He was canonized in 1083. What is said to be St Stephen's right hand is preserved as a relic (the "Holy Right") in a chapel in his mostly nineteenth-century basilica in Budapest. There is a detailed article about the relic and about the Hungarian regalia, which has been associated with St Stephen in national perception for centuries, here. There is a photograph of the reliquary here, and this is the "Holy Right": There is another photograph of the hand here. St Stephen. (at right, together with his queen, Bl. Gisela of Hungary) as depicted in fresco in the thirteenth-century Gisela chapel (Gizellakapolna) at Veszprém here (the image is expandable) and here. Here is St Stephen as depicted in a miniature in the Hungarian Képes Krónika (Chronicon Pictum: before 1360): I think that is a particularly appealing example of fourteenth century manuscript art, and in its use of the arms of the Kingdom. St Stephen. as depicted by by János Rozsnyai in the Crucifixion (1445) on the north wall of the sanctuary of the cathedral of Nagyszeben, can be seen here: To this I would add this picture: Procession of the relics of St Stephen to the Parliament building in August 2000. I will, hopefully, post more about the Holy Crown of St Stephen on August 20th.