Magyar Zoltán

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

ANGEL

Angelic annunciation

Ladislas: Due to an angelic apparition during hunt saint founds a monastery consecrated to the Holy Virgin (Nagyvárad/Oradea, Romania): CP:139; Thuroczy: 86; Bonfini: 2.4.250. Angelic apparition (a man clad in beams of light) foretells Ladislas’s victory and urges him to attack: Hodinka: 464-465, 478-479, 478-479.

Help of angels

Andrew: Angel (radiant, angelic-faced youth) comes to the aid of saint who fainted and takes him back to his hut on his coach: AN:4.

Ladislas: Vision of king Solomon. When they prepare to combat in disguise, Solomon sees one/two angels above the head/on the shoulders of Ladislas, who threaten him with their fiery swords (Solomon flees): CP:129; Madas:7.1.1.; Bonfini: 2.4.70-75; EC: 399; CP: plate 91.

Angelic visits

Stephen: During saint’s devotions angels visit him: Temesvári: 52.36

Elizabeth: Saint keeps angelic visitation secret: EL VII:7.IX. Saint’s tomb is often visited by angels: EL VII:8.XIV.

Helen: While saint is praying an angelic voice is heard above: HE:12. Angels visit saint, talk with her, leave a pleasant scent behind: HE:13, 15. Angels bring the Host to saint directly from heaven: HE:12. Angels bring the saint a letter from heaven, ’her life’s sheet’: HE:13, 15. Angelic visit: HE:6, 18. The letter from heaven brought by angels cannot be taken out of saint’s hands: HE:15. Saint pleads with angels that they bring her no more gifts and keep their visits to her secret: HE:13.

Kinga: Beautiful, radiant youths provide wine for those in need: KI I:39, 60.

Angelic coronation

Stephen: Saint is crowned by angels: Thuroczy: the woodcut of the chronicle’s Augsburg edition; Kerny: 9, 13 (iconography: coloured woodcut; the image on the seal of Simon Erdődy, bishop of Zagreb).

Ladislas: Angelic coronation. Ladislas’s vision: an angel places the crown on his elder brother’s head: CP:120; CH:111; Thuroczy: 79; Bonfini: 2.3.270; EC: 398; CP: p. 83. Angel crowns saint: Romer: 22, 78; MagyarZ II: title page illustration; MagyarZ III: XVIII., XXIII (murals). Two angels place crown on saint’s head: CP: p. 92; LaszloGy: plates 125-126, 130-131 (murals).

Angelic singing heard during saint’s burial

Stephen: At the saint’s burial a choir of angels is heard: EC:49. At the saint’s tomb angelic voices are frequently heard during the night: ST III:43; Temesvari: 52.38.

Emeric: At saint’s death a choir of angels is heard: EM:13.

Ladislas: During saint’s burial the mass of the dead is sung, but angels drown out the chant singing the Credo: Temesvari: 15.23; EC:402.

Elizabeth: 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.

Helen: While saint is praying an angelic voice is heard above: HE:12.

Angels, saints take deceased saint’s spirit to heaven

Stephen: Saint’s spirit is carried to heaven by an angel/ by a host of angels: Kadar: 447-448 (the relief on St. Stephen’s sarcophagus in the Székesfehérvár cathedral); Hymn I:3.6; Radocsay: 389 (the Mateóc altarpiece dedicated to Sts. Stephen and Emeric).

Emeric: Angels take saint’s spirit to heaven: EM:13; ST III:39; AnjouLeg-EM: plate 5; Radocsay: 389 (the Mateóc altarpiece dedicated to Sts. Stephen and Emeric).

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

Kinga: A nun sees the hands, covered in scarves, of two saints descending in the hour of Kinga’s death: KI I:63. More persons testify to having seen angels and saints take Kinga’s spirit to heaven: KI I:63, 64, 65, 67, 68. Saint’s spirit is carried to heaven by angels: KI I:63, 64, 68.

Margaret: Vision. Margaret’s spirit is taken to heaven by angels: Ransanus: XVI.15.

Angelic apparition

Stephen: An angel appears to Stephen’s father and announces the birth and glory of his son (dream vision of supreme chieftain Géza): ST I:5; ST III:5; Bonfini: 2.1.10; Temesvari: 52.34-34; VD: plate 1. An angel appears to the pope in his dream and instructs him whom to send the crown to (dream vision of pope Sylvester II): ST III:18-21; Temesvari: 52.29-30; EC:497-498; VD: plate 3. Stephen’s right hand with the ring is handed over to a cleric by a youth clad in white (angel); the cleric places it in a monastery founded for the veneration of the relic: ST III:48.

Ladislas: Prophesies victory and urges to attack (St. Ladislas’s vision): Hodinka: 464-465, 478-479, 478-479. Crowning of prince Géza (St. Ladislas’s vision): CP:120; CH:111; Thuroczy: 79; Bonfini:2 .3.270; EC:398; CP: plate 83. Two angels threaten Ladislas’s opponent with their fiery swords (vision of king Solomon): CP: 129; Bonfini: 2.4.70.-75.; EC:399; CP: p. 91. Angels surround saint’s funeral vehicle: Madas:10.1.1.3. Angels carry saint’s funeral vehicle to the burial place: Temesvari:14.3.; Laskai:48.2.2. During saint’s burial the mass of the dead is sung, but angels drown out the chant singing the Credo: Temesvari: 14.3.; EC: 402.

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

Margaret: The Virgin Mary descends with a host of angels to the dying Margaret, places a golden wreath and crown iradiating divine light on her head and takes her to heaven on a ladder reaching up into the skies (vision of a nun): MA I:II.3-4; Ransanus: XVI.15. Margaret is carried to heaven by angels in the moment of her death (vision of a woman): Ransanus: XVI.15.

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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