Magyar Zoltán

Legends of Early Hungarian Saints: type- and motif-index

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

BIRTH, UPBRINGING

Prophecy. Klingsor, the legendary Transylvanian Saxon bard foretells saint’s birth and marriage with the son of the landgrave of Thuringia: EL VII: 1.I.

Saint is born in Sárospatak: Laskai: 7.

Miracles occur at the site of the martyrdom of the saint’s mother: EL V:1.

Saint zealously performs her daily devotions in childhood already: EL IV.1-4, 5; EL V:3; EL VII:1.III; EL VIII:2; Bonfini:2.7.305-310; EC:639.

Saint eagerly gives up worldly goods (rich garments, dancing) in childhood already: EL IV:I.7-9, 10; EL V:3; EL VII:1.IV.

Saint prefers the company of the poor, of servants in childhood already: EL VII:1.VI, 6.IX.

Saint supports the poor, gives alms in childhood already: EL VIII:2; Bonfini: 2.7.310.

Upon learning that she is to become a bride, saint throws her wreath into a spring and consecrates herself to God: Laskai: 8.

PROVISION

Support, alms: EL IV:III.8, 10, IV.1, 3, 4, 6, 26, 27; EL V:18, 21; EL VI: 6; EL VII:2.VII, XI, XII, 3.V, VI, 7.I, II; EL VIII:14, 15, 116, 34, 36; Laskai: 91; EC:642; KlaniczayT-KlaniczayG: 122 (iconography: the seal of the city of Kassa/Kasovice, Slovakia).

Saint pays the debt of the poor man: EL IV:II.16; EL V:10, 13, 25, 26, 28.

Saint provides food for the poor: EL VII:2.III, 6.X; EL VIII:16; Radocsay:376 (Lőcse/Slovakia: St. Elizabeth altarpiece).

Saint distributes the crops from the granaries to the people during famine: EL I:2; EL IV:II.18; EL V:12; EL VII:3.IV.; Bonfini: 2.7.310.

Saint attends to orphaned children: EL VII: 3.IV.

Saint distributes clothes among the poor: EL IV: II.17, 19, 20.

Saint gives her own clothes (her rich cloak) to the poor: EL VII: 2.VI, X; EL VIII: 9.

Saint weaves and sews clothing, shrouds for the poor: EL IV: II.15, 16; EL V: 10; EL VII:3.VI; EL VIII:19.

SPREADING OF CHRISTIANITY

Conversion

Saint induces others to live in humility and moderation: EL IV:II.11; EL V:9.

Saint orders a girl to cut her beautiful long hair off (the girl later becomes a nun): EL IV:IV.3; EL V:25; EL VIII:7.III; El VIII:36; Bonfini: 2.7.330-335.

Due to saint’s prayers the rich garments of a worldly, debauched youth are heated and flare up in flames (youth is converted): EL IV:IV.2; EL V:24; EL VII:7.VII; EL VIII:33; Temesvari: 98.18.

Foundations

Saint founds monastery: EL VI:20.

HEALING

Nursing of the sick

Saint founds hospices for the poor (Wartburg, Marburg): EL I:2; EL IV:III.8, IV.8; EL VII:3.IV, V, 6.IV; EL VIII:17, 34; Bonfini: 2.7.330.

Saint nurses the ill: EL I:3, 3; EL IV:II.3, IV.6-8; EL VII:2.VII, 3.IV, V, 6.X, 7.V; VIII:8, 17, 35; Bonfini: 2.7.330; EC: 642; Radocsay: 266, 343 (Bártfa: St. Elizabeth altarpiece, Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth).

The more repellent the disease, the more saint likes to nurse the sick: EL I:2; EL IV:II.18, IV.1; EL V:6, 12, 21.

Saint attends to lepers (washes their feet, kisses their wounds): EL I:3; EL IV:II.22, 23, IV.9; EL V:13, 22; EL VII:2.XII; TemesvariStell: VII.2; Temesvari: 87; EC: 642; Radocsay: 452 (Szmrecsány: the Christ’s Parentage altarpiece).

Saint lays a leper into her husband’s bed (’the miracle of the cross’): EL VII: 2.VII; Timar: 195-196; EC: 642-643; Radocsay: 343, 376, 452 (Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth, Lőcse: St. Elizabeth altarpiece, Szmrecsány: Christ’s Parentage altarpiece).

Healing

Saint heals a deaf-mute child: EL:VII: 7.V.

Saint heals a woman with leprosy: EL IV:IV.9; EL V:22.

HUMILITY

Persecution

The relatives of saint’s husband drive her and her children out of the castle; saint finds refuge for herself and her children in a pigsty, in a ramshackle hut: EL IV:III.1, 8; EL V:14; EL VI:6; EL VII:4.VII; EL VIII:22; Bonfini: 2.7.315; EC: 644; Radocsay: 266, 343, 452 (Bártfa: St. Elizabeth altarpiece, Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth, Szmrecsány: Christ’s Parentage altarpiece).

Saint earns her daily bread by sewing and wool spinning: EL IV:IV.11, 12, 13, 17; EL V:23; EL VII:6.VIII.

Saint performs menial works: EL VII:6.X; Bonfini:2.7.330.

Humility

Saint’s extraordinary humility is the principal reason for her sanctity: EL VI:22; Laskai:9.

Saint seeks the company of the poor even during mass: EC:642.

Saint leads a life of self-willed poverty: EL VII:5.IX_X, 6.II, VI, VII.

Saint can’t abide being called a lady: EL IV:IV.23.

Saint wears simple, shabby clothes: EL IV:II.11-14, 24, IV.15, 25; EL V:10, 23; EL VI:8; EL VII:2.V, VIII, XII, 6.IV, VII; EL VIII:13.

Saint washes the feet of the poor and sick: EL I:3; EL IV:II.22, IV.4; EL V:13, 22; EL VII:2.XII.

Saint washes the soiled sheet of the sick: EL VIII:35.

Saint kisses the wounds of lepers: EL IV:II.22; EL V:13; EL VII:2.XII.

Saint drinks of the lepers’ bath water: Laskai:108.

Saint humbly endures the insults of her husband’s relatives: EL IV:III.9; EL V:18.

Saint humbly endures that a woman whom she once helped shoves her into the mire: EL IV:III.1; EL V:15; EL VII:4.VIII; EL VIII:22; Laskai:2; EC:644; Radocsay: 266, 343 (Bártfa: St. Elizabeth altarpiece, Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth).

Saint works in place of her servants: EL IV: IV.24-25; EL V:28; EL VIII: 29; Temesvari: 98.21.

Saint humbly obeys her confessor (she restricts her almsgiving): EL IV:IV.27; EL VIII:7.IV.

Saint humbly endures that her confessor slaps her in the face: EL IV:III.14, 16; EL VII:7.IV.

Saint humbly endures that her confessor sends her beloved away (her dear servants, her one-and-a-half-year-old son) and orders that she have hostile servants: EL IV:III.12, IV.28; EL V:19, 29; EL VII:6.V, 7.IV; EL VIII:28.

Secrecy

Saint keeps miraculous apparitions secret and asks her servants to do the same: EL IV:III.2; EL V:16.

Saint keeps her zealous nightly devotions secret: EL IV:III.3.

Saint keeps angelic visitation secret: EL VII:7.IX.

ASCETICISM, SELF-TORTURE, PENITENCE

Penitence

During mass saint’s gaze strays to her beloved husband. She sees blood-drops fall from the Host onto the priest’s hands during the elevation of the Host; she does penance for having forgotten her betrothed in heaven: EL VII:3.III.

Asceticism

At the rich princely banquet saint eats nothing but bread: EL IV:IV.1; EL VII:2.III; EL VIII:12, 13.

Frequent fasting: EL IV:II.5; EL V:7; EL VI:6; EL VII:2.II, XI; EL VIII:11; Temesvari: 98.21; EC:642.

Saint usually abstains from married life (sex): EL VII:2.III.

Saint abstains from bathing: EL IV:IV.16; EL V:23.

Saint rejects second marriage, is ready to mutilate herself to impede it: EL IV:III.5, 6; EL V:17, 18; EL VI:6; EL VII:5.I, EL VIII:23; Bonfini:2.7.320.

When her father (the Hungarian king Andrew II) sends envoys to call her back to Hungary, saint refuses, preferring poverty and exile: EL IV:IV.14; EL V:23; EL VII:6.VIII; EL VIII:26; EC:644.

Self-torture

Saint orders her servants to wake her at night to pray: EL: IV:II.2, 6-8, III.3; EL V:8; EL VII:2.I, II; EL VIII:7.

Saint often wears a cilicium (penitent’s girdle): EL VII:2.V.

Saint orders her servants to flog and birch her: EL IV:II.9, 10, 17; EL V:8; EL VII:2.II, VI; EL VIII:10, 11, 29; Temesvari: 98.21; EC: 642.

Saint humbly endures that her confessor flogs and birches her: EL: IV:III.14, 16, IV.20, 21; EL V:11, 19, 27; EL VII:6.IV.

PUNISHMENT, MALEDICTION, RETRIBUTION

Saint’s prayer ties the sinner couple who intend to abandon their child at their night lodging (they can’t go any further, are forced to return): EL IV:IV.5; EL V:26; EL VIII:37.

Saint orders the flogging of a woman who refuses to confess: EL IV:IV.10; EL V:22; EL VIII:35.

A man who regained his eyesight by virtue of the saint curses the man who insulted him by saying let Elizabeth avenge him. The cursed man drowns: EL II:49; EL VIII:53.

SIGNS OF SANCTITYdivine light: EL VII:2.XI.

During prayer saint’s face is marvellously radiant, beams of light radiate from her eyes: EL I:3; EL VIII:33; Temesvari: 98.18.

When crying, saint’s face is not disfigured: EL IV:IV.29; EL V:29.

MIRACLES

The beer that the saint provides for the poor never runs out, its quantity remains the same: EL IV:II.19; EL VII:3.V; EL VIII:16.

Saint brings fish to an ill person from a brook where there has never been any fish: EL VII:6.X; Laskai:5.

Saint accidentally drops the glass pearls she is carrying to a sick child from a high promontory, but the pearls don’t break up: EL IV:II.18; EL V:12; EL VII:3.V; EL VIII:17.

’The Wartburg banquet’. Saint’s rich cloak which she gave away to a beggar is miraculously restored to her when she has to put it on to her husband’s request: EL VII:2.IX, X; Laskai:1; EC: 643; Radocsay: 266, 343 (Bártfa: St. Elizabeth altarpiece, Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth).

Saint’s rich garment and crown is carried back to her by an angel in order that she may appear suitably dressed on the princely banquet: Laskai:1; EC:643.

The ’miracle of the cross’. Saint lays a leper in her husband’s bed. When she has to account for her deed, in place of the leper the crucified Christ appears on the bed: EL VII:2.VII; Timar: 195-196; EC: 642-643; Radocsay: 343, 376, 452 (Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth, Lőcse: St. Elizabeth altarpiece, Szmrecsány: Christ’s Parentage altarpiece).

The ’miracle of the roses’. Saint carries bread to the poor in her apron. When demanded to account for her deed (mostly by her father) she replies that she is carrying roses; and indeed, the loaves are immediately turned into roses: Lemmens: 381-382, 383; Laskai: 108.91; Temesvari:96; EC:639-640; Radocsay: 266 (Bártfa: St. Elizabeth altarpiece).

PROPHECY

Klingsor, the legendary Transylvanian Saxon bard and sage foretells saint’s birth and marriage with the son of the landgrave of Thuringia: EL VII:1.I.

Saint foretells her future life as a beggar: EL IV:II.21.

Saint foretells the date of her own death: EL I:3; EL IV:IV.35; EL V:30; EL VII:8.I.

SAINT’S DEATH, ELEVATION, TRANSLATION OF REMAINS

Saint’s death

Saint foretells the date of her death: EL I:3; EL IV:IV.35; EL V:30; EL VII:8.I.

Before her death Christ appears to saint and summons her to the heavens: EL VIII:38.; EC:645.

Saint drives off the devil of temptation on her death bed: EL IV:IV.34; EL V:30; EL VIII:38, 41; Temesvari: 98.24; Radocsay: 343 (Kassa: high altar of St. Elizabeth).

Saint sings sweetly on her death bed: EL IV:IV.32; EL V:30; EL VII:8.II.; EC:644.

Heavenly bird (angel) sings with saint on her death bed: EL IV:32; EL V:30; EL VII:8.II; EL VIII:38, 41; Temesvari: 98.24; EC:645.

In the hour of saint’s death sweet singing/angelic singing is heard: EL I:3; EL VII:8.III.

While saint is laid out on her catafalque, a flock of birds (a host of angels) gathers on the church’s roof and sing sweetly: EL IV:IV.37; EL V:30; EL VIII:40, 42; Temesvari: 98.24; EC: 645-646.

Saint’s spirit is carried to heaven by angels: Temesvari: 98.24.

Saint’s body gives off a sweet scent at her death: EL I:4; EL VII:8.V; EL VIII:39; Bonfini: 2.7.335; Temesvari: 98.24; EC:645.

Saint’s corpse escapes rigor mortis: EL I:4.

Translation of remains

When saint’s tomb is opened her coffin lets off a sweet scent: EL IV:IV.37; EL V:30; EL VI:13; EL VII:8.XIII.

When saint’s tomb is opened her body is found undeteriorated: EL IV:IV.37; EL V:30; EL VI:13.

Saint’s tomb is found full of oil: EL VII:8.XVII; EL VIII:40, 43.

Oil oozes from saint’s body: EL IV:18, 19; EL VII:8.XVII; Bonfini: 2.7.335; Temesvari: 98.24.

Saint’s tomb is often visited by angels: EL VII:8.XIV.

RELICS

Saint’s shawl, clothes, nails, fingers, nipples (cut off her body by pilgrims while she is laid out on the catafalque): EL IV:IV.37; EL V:30; EL VII:8.V; EL VIII:40.

Oil oozing from saint’s body (gathered in a jug; healing powers): EL VI:18.

The cover on saint’s altar (healing powers): EL II:76; EL VIII:62.

Saint’s gravestone (the hole driven through gravestone at the head; healing powers): EL II:40; EL III:15; EL VIII:47.

Earth taken from saint’s tomb (healing powers: spread on the body, dusted on the head, drunk in water): EL II:1, 39, 97; EL III:15; EL VIII:60.

THROUGH SAINT’S MERITS (SAINT HELPS AFTER DEATH)

Diseased are healed through saint’s merits

Diseased are cured: EL I:1; EL III:3, 19, 23; EL VI:9, 10, 20; EL VII:8.VII; EL VIII:45; TE:11; Laskai: 6; Temesvári: 98.24.

Blind can see: EL II:1, 21, 30, 37, 38, 46, 49, 50, 76, 84, 85, 88, 91, 96, 99, 100, 105; EL III: 6, 7, 14, 16, 22; EL VI:9, 20; EL VII:8.IX, XVIII; EL VIII: 53, 56, 59, 60, 61, 62; Laskai: 4, Temesvari: 98.24; Bonfini: 2.7.345, 2.7.345.

Paralytics are healed: EL II:4, 5, 12, 20, 29, 40, 45, 52, 59, 98, 101; EL III:8, 9, 10, 11; EL VI:9, 20; EL VII:8.IX; EL VIII:47, 58, 63; Bonfini: 2.7.345.

Lame are healed: EL II:15, 33, 34, 42, 44, 46, 51, 55, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 79, 82, 87, 89, 90, 93; EL III:5; EL VI:9, 20; EL VII:8.IX, XIV, XVIII; Bonfini: 2.7.345.

A deaf-mute is healed: EL II:46; Bonfini: 2.7.345.

Deaf can hear: EL VI:9; EL VIII:8.IX, XIV, XVIII.

Mute can talk: EL II:20, 24, 63, 86; EL VII:8.IX, XVIII; Laskai: 4.

Hunchbacks are healed: EL II:3, 22, 28, 34, 48, 54, 56, 64, 66, 70, 72, 78, 106; EL III:8, 93; EL VIII:57; Bonfini: 2.7.345; Temesvari: 98.24.

An epileptic is cured: EL II:23, 24, 32, 35, 36, 41, 43, 53, 77, 81; EL:1, 2, 4; EL VI:9; EL VII:8.IX.

Madness is cured: EL I:4; EL II:16, 18, 27, 102; EL VII:8.IX.

Cripples are healed: EL II:72, 79, 82, 95, 97; EL III:15; Bonfini: 2.7.340, 345; Temesvari: 98.24.

Broken bones are knit: EL II:75; EL III:20, 24; EL VII:8.XVII, EL XVIII:55; Temesvari: 98.24.

People suffering from swelling are cured: EL II:73, 87, 103, 104.

Uraemics are cured: EL II:67, 73; EL VII:8.XVIII.

Goiters are cured: EL II:3, 22, 54, 55, 64, 106, Bonfini: 2.7.345.

Persons suffering from flow(s) of blood and haemophilia are cured: EL II:11, 30, 60, 83.

People suffering from eye diseases are cured: EL II:8, 26, 60, 76.

The cancerous are cured: EL II:12, 94.

Lepers are healed: EL VII:8.IX, XVIII.

A man with hernia is cured: EL II:92.

A man suffering from gallstones is cured: EL II:17.

A man suffering from a disease of the nose is cured: EL II:74.

Abscesses, suppuration are cured: EL II:9; EL III: 12.

A man cured of polypus: EL II:14.

A disfigured woman is healed: EL II:57.

A wounded man is healed: EL II:25.

People suffering from other diseases are cured: EL II: 39, 71; EL III:19; Bonfini: 2.7.340.

People suffering from multiple diseases are cured: EL II:3, 20, 22, 24, 28, 30, 34, 46, 48, 54, 55, 56, 63, 64, 70, 72, 73, 79, 82, 86, 89, 93, 106; EL III:8; EL VII:8.IX; EL VIII:57; Bonfini: 2.7.345, 2.7.345.

Dead are risen through saint’s merits

Dead are resurrected: EL II:2, 7; EL VI:9; EL VII:8.IX, XIV, XVIII; EL VIII:50; Temesvari: 98.24.

Drowned people are resurrected: EL II:6, 10, 47, 49; EL III:21; EL VII:8.XVII; EL VIII:49, 51, 52, 53; Bonfini: 2.7.345.

Hanged convicts are resurrected: EL III:17, EL VIII:48; Bonfini: 2.7.340.

A stillborn infant is resurrected: El II:13.

Possession by devil is healed through saint’s merits

The person possessed by the devil is liberated: EL II:80; EL III:13; EL VI:20; EL VII:8.IX, XVIII; EL VIII:46; Bonfini: 2.7.340; Temesvari: 98.24.

Other miracles through saint’s merits

The rope with which an innocent man is to be hanged snaps on the scaffold: EL III:18; EL VIII:54.

Sinners are converted at the saint’s burial-place: EL II:14; EL VII:8.VIII, IX, IX.

Prisoner praying to saint is liberated: EL VII:8.IX (his shackles fall apart), XVIII; MA I:V.13; MA II:II.68.

Sinner is freed from purgatory through saint’s merits: EL VII:8.IX.

Victims of a shipwreck are rescued through saint’s merits: EL VII:8.XVIII.

APPARITIONS, VISIONS

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Appears to the diseased praying to her: EL II:3, 51, 76, 98, 105; EL III:1, 2, 24; EL VII:8.XVI; EL VIII:45, 55, 57, 62.

Appears to the ill St. Elizabeth of Töss: TE:11.

Saint’s confessor was sentenced to five years’ atonement in Purgatory, but due to saint’s intercession he is freed (Conrad’s vision): EL VII:8.IX.

Jesus Christ

Talks to saint, comforts saint, summons saint to himself (St. Elizabeth’s vision): EL IV:III.2 (secrecy); EL V:16 (secrecy); EL VII:4.IX, 7.IX; EL VIII:31-32, 38, Bonfini: 2.7.325; Temesvari: 98.24.

Jesus Christ with hosts of saints (St. Elizabeth’s vision): EL VII:7.IX.

Jesus Christ as He was flogged et the column (St. Elizabeth’s vision): Barletta.

The Eucharist

At the elevation of the Host drops of blood fall from the Host (St. Elizabeth’s vision): EL VII:3.III.

Mary Virgin

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary (St. Elizabeth’s vision). Werdena:17; Antoninus:III.XIX.11.; Temesvari:10.1.3.; Laskai:73.

St. Elisabeth’s mother

Queen Gertrudis (St. Elizabeth’s mother; she asks saint to pray for her; on another occasion she thanks saint for having liberated her with her prayers – St. Elizabeth’s visions): EL VII:6.X; Laskai:3.

Angels

Angels visit saint, talk with her (St. Elizabeth’s visions): EL VII:7.IX (secrecy); Bonfini: 2.7.325; EC:644.

A miraculous old man appears to pilgrims going to her burial-place: EL III:15.

Voice from heaven

Voice from heaven talks to saint: EC:644.

Voice from heaven heard above the head of the man sentenced to death: EL III:18.

Legends of Early Hungarian Saints: type- and motif-index

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 185 6

Művelődéstörténet Idegen nyelvű

The work of folklorist Zoltán Magyar throws light on a relatively little-known segment of the dynastyc cult of saints in Central European cultural history. The hagiographies and legends written on different members of the Árpadian dynasty, ruling in Hungary between the 11th and 13th centuries, and their contemporaries endowed with the aura of sanctity, occur not only in their medieval Hungarian legendry but have also become part of the liturgical tradition and the cult of saints on German, Polish and Byzantine soil. The thematic and generic variety of this legendry and its many folkloric implications show close parallels with another major work of medieval European hagiography: the legends of early Irish saints. The type- and motif-index and generatic catalogue compiled by Zoltán Magyar orders the epic tradition, based on 11rh-16th century written sources, of twelve Hungarian royal saints who have become the subject of legends shortly after their death. Beside classification according to the type of legendd heroes and themes, the book also contains an analysis of the biographical data, of the historical sources and of the primary types and motifs of hagiographies.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/magyar-early-hungarian-saints-type-and-motif-index//

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