Magyar Zoltán

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

Hermits Andrew and Benedict (András-Szórád, Andreas-Zoerard and Benedek, Benedict)

On their lives there are no extant historical sources, all we know about them comes from their legends. As related by Maurus, bishop of Pécs and author of the Vita, Zoerard came from Polish soil to Hungary at the beginning of St. Stephen’s reign, adopting the monk name Andrew. He lived a reclusive hermit’s life in the Northern region Hungary, near Nyitra (present-day Nitra, Slovakia) having as companion and disciple the hermit Benedict who was later murdered by highwaymen. On the site of his martyrdom, according to legend, the Benedictine abbey of Szkalka (today Skala, Slovakia) was founded; his corpse, together with the remains of Andrew, was buried in the church of St. Emmeram in Nyitra. This church is already mentioned in a 1111 document as being the church of Sts. Emmeram, Andrew and Benedict. (Milik 1966; Pražak 1980).

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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