Magyar Zoltán

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

PIETY

Signs of saint’s pious character

Stephen: Saint is always serious, almost never laughs: ST I:26; ST III:40.

Margaret: Saint talks little, rarely laughs: MA I:I.17, 24.

Ladislas: People call saint ’the best of kings’, ’pious king’ (pius rex) because of his kind-heartedness: LA:5; Madas:3.1.1.; 4.1.2.; 5.1.1.; 6.1.1.; 8.1.2.; 10.1.2.; Temesvari:14.2.3.; 15.1.3.; 16.1.2.; Laskai:48.1.1.; 49.2.1.; 50.2.2. Saint is merciful and righteous: LA:5; Madas:3.1.1.; 5.1.1.; 10.1.2.; Temesvari:14.2.3.; 16.1.1-2.; Laskai:48.1.1.; 49.2.1.; 50.2.2.

Saint is extremely devout, prays frequently

Piroska-Eiréné: The psalms are almost always on saint’s lips: PE I:2; PE II:3.

Kinga: Saint prays frequently and zealously: KI I:8.

Saint often spends the night in worship

Stephen: Saint often spends the night in prayer: ST I:20; ST III:14, 37.

Emeric: Prays even during the night: EM:1; EC:615; AnjouLeg-EM: plate 1.

Ladislas: Saint often spends the night in worship: LA:6; AnjouLeg-LA: plate 6;Madas:3.1.1.; 7.1.1.; 10.1.2.; Temesvari:14.2.3.; Laskai:48.2.1.; 49.2.1.; 50.2.2.

Elizabeth: 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.

Margaret: Saint often rises at night to worship: MA I:I.19; MA II:I.27; Ransanus: XIV.6, 7.

Under no circumstances does saint interrupt prayer

Stephen – bishop Maurus: He is the only one among the monks who does not interrupt his prayers at the arrival of the king: EM:6.

Margaret: Saint continues praying even when a heavy log of wood falls on her head, hitting her hard: MA II:I.28. Saint continues praying even when her Mother Superior sends for her: MA I:VI.16. Saint continues praying even when her parents and siblings arrive in the convent to visit her: MA II:I.28.

Ecstatic piety

Margaret: Ecstatic rapture upon receiving the sacrament: MA I:I.108. Ecstatic rapture (to the point of fainting) during prayer: MA II:I.36.

Helen: Saint is frequently found in rapture and ecstasy with the Host in her hands and mouth: HE:2, 3, 19.

Saint’s tears

Ladislas: Saint’s tears make holes in marble: Madas:6.1.1.2.; Mazal-Vizkelety: 94; Hodinka: 464-465, 478-479, 478-479.

Irene: Saint with her tears and pleading induces the emperor to grant that the monastery founded by her be the first in rank and benefices among all monasteries of the Empire: PE I:2; PE II:3.

Margaret: During prayer saint’s flowing tears soak her handkerchief: MA I:I.33.

Kinga: Saint washes the feet of a poor boy with her tears, dries them with her hair: KI I:9. Saint fills the small case in front of the holy image of Christ three times with her flowing tears during prayer: KI I:44. Saint’s crying melts the snow, heats the ice, makes green grass grow in winter on the place where she stands: KI I:9.

Secret adherence to orthodoxy

Stephen: Secret adherence to orthodoxy. Saint converts to orthodoxy under the influence of St. Sava, but keeps it secret: Hodinka: 484-486.

Ladislas: Secret adherence to orthodoxy. Saint converts to orthodoxy under the influence of St. Sava, but keeps it secret: Hodinka: 462-463, 474-476, 474-476.; Moldva II:48.

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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