Stefan learned to read and write in Galicia, and received further education at the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium. Teaching here was conducted in Latin, in a strictly scholastic spirit. In the last years of his stay at the college, Yavorsky was able to take advantage of lectures on theology and philosophy by the famous scholastic Joasaph of Krokovsky and acquired a patron in the person of Varlaam Yasinsky, later Metropolitan of Kyiv. In 1684 he wrote a eulogy in his honor: "Hercules post Atlantem, infracto virtutum robore honorarium pondus sustinens", where Hercules is Jasinski and Atlant is his predecessor Gisel. The panegyric is written in Latin, in verse and prose, interspersed with Polish verse.
Uniatism
Repentance and monasticism
Bishop
Around this time, the incident with Feofan Prokopovich broke out. Stefan did not want Theophan to get the episcopal position. He saw in his teachings, in his lectures, strong traces of Protestant influence. The king listened to Theophanes' justifications and appointed him bishop; Stefan had to apologize to Feofan. He did it feeling right. Stephen's church and administrative activities completely ceased; he did not take any part in the preparatory actions for church reform, the Spiritual Regulations were written without him, and church administration also passed by his hands.
Stefan tried to figure out his situation and in 1718 asked the Tsar: 1) whether he should return to Moscow or live in St. Petersburg, 2) where to live in St. Petersburg, 3) how he should manage his diocese from afar, 4) whether to summon bishops to St. Petersburg, 5) how to fill bishop's seats. The tsar ordered him to live in St. Petersburg, build a courtyard with his own money, manage the Ryazan diocese through the Krutitsy archbishop, etc. At the end, the tsar wrote: “... and for better management in the future, it seems that a collegium should be necessary, so that such a great matter will be more convenient in the future it was possible to manage." In February 1720, the Charter of the Spiritual College was approved; a year later the Synod was opened; The tsar appointed Stephen as president of the Synod, who was least sympathetic to this institution. Stefan refused to sign the protocols of the Synod and did not attend its meetings. Stephen had no influence on synodal affairs; the tsar, obviously, kept him only in order, using his name, to give a certain sanction to the new institution. During his entire stay in the Synod, Stefan was under investigation for political matters. Then the enslaving man Lyubimov slandered him in that he was sympathetic to his, Lyubimov’s, works (); then monk Levin testified that Stefan allegedly told him: “the sovereign appointed me to the Synod, but I didn’t want to, and for that I knelt before him under the sword,” and also: “and I myself want to go to Poland” () . Upon closer examination, the accusations turned out to be unfounded, but Stefan was constantly interrogated. He also found no consolation in his attachment to the monastery he founded in Nizhyn, because he discovered a large theft of the money he had sent to establish the monastery. All these troubles shortened Stefan's life. He donated his library to the Nezhin monastery, adding a touching elegy in Latin to the catalog of books.
He died in Moscow on November 24, 1722. His body was sent to Ryazan, where it was buried in the Assumption Cathedral.
The first two were close associates of Peter the Great, especially Feofan Prokopovich.
Stefan Yavorsky (1658-1722) studied at the Kyiv Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy and completed his education at a Catholic school in Rome. Returning to Kyiv, he was first a teacher and then a professor at the Academy. Stephen was famous for his eloquence; Tsar Peter drew attention to him, having heard one of his sermons, promoted him, elevated him, and then, in 1700, when Patriarch Adrian, who was unsympathetic to Peter’s innovations, died, the tsar appointed Stefan Yavorsky locum tenens of the patriarchal throne; subsequently he was the first chairman of the Synod. But when Peter saw that Stefan Yavorsky did not always sympathize with his measures and sometimes even directly expressed disagreement and condemnation, the tsar lost interest in him and brought Feofan Prokopovich closer to him.
Stefan Yavorsky had a large and deep theological education, but did not have much knowledge in secular sciences; for example, he did not recognize the astronomical system Copernicus.
Stefan Jaworski's main work, "The Stone of Faith", is directed against the doctrine Lutheran; Stefan was afraid of the rapprochement of Lutherans with Russian people, he was afraid of their harmful influence on the Orthodox, and in his book he criticized Lutheran teaching; he was much more sympathetic to Catholicism, for example, he was inclined towards the Catholic teaching on purgatory. But Tsar Peter had many Lutheran friends among the foreigners of the German Settlement; fearing to offend them, Peter did not allow the publication of Stefan Yavorsky's book; “The Stone of Faith” was published after the death of the king.
Stefan Yavorsky, as already mentioned, was known as a preacher. His sermons are built according to all the rules of scholasticism, replete with comparisons, allegories, wordplay, examples from mythology and ancient poets. To us these sermons seem artificial and ponderous. So, for example, in one “Word” Stefan Yavorsky compares the church with a pharmacy in which the sick in soul can receive medicine; he invites you to come to the “pharmacy, the most honorable Church of Christ.” “They are in need,” he says, “all those who are sick in grief should seek help from doctors; then the doctor who wrote the prescription, i.e., the chart, depicts the medicine compositions on it, sends it to the pharmacy, and the medicine will be prepared there.” Further, the preacher even indicates the composition of the medicines, getting carried away in comparisons: bile is the everlasting remembrance of the passion of Christ, myrrh is mortification of the flesh, honey is the thought of heaven, etc.
Russian Orthodox Church and Peter the Great. Lecture
In another very famous “Word”, spoken on the occasion of the capture of the city of Shlisselburg, Stefan Yavorsky indulges in a rather bold play on words. The name of the city “Shlisselburg” in Swedish means “key city”, in Russian this city was formerly called Oreshek. Who managed to conquer this Nut? To Tsar Peter. Comparing Peter with Apostle Peter, Stefan Jaworski says:
This Nut was not afraid of even the strongest teeth; the teeth should have been crushed first rather than the Nut, and would have remained unharmed until now, if the hardest stone had not struck the hardness of the calico. And the stone is nothing other than what Christ says about it: Peter, you are a stone. Nowadays this city is called Slisselburg, i.e. Key-city, but who got this key? Petrov Christ promised to give the keys. Behold now how gloriously the promise of Christ is being fulfilled.
One cannot help but be surprised that Stefan Yavorsky, in a sermon delivered from the church pulpit, decides to compare Tsar Peter with the Apostle Peter and carry out this comparison further.
But Stefan Yavorsky did not always praise Peter the Great. Not approving of some of the king's actions, he expressed this in his sermons openly and even harshly. For example, he condemned Peter for the trial of Tsarevich Alexei; condemned his divorce from his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina, and her imprisonment in a monastery. Those close to Peter were outraged by this “Word” of Stefan Yavorsky, believing that he had insulted the royal honor with his denunciation; but, having read this “Word”, against the passage relating to it, Peter only wrote: “first alone, then with witnesses,” that is, one must denounce first in private, then publicly. Yavorsky also did not approve of the heavy obligations of conscription and taxes with which Peter burdened the people. Sympathizing with the plight of the people, Stefan Yavorsky, in one of his sermons, compares it to the wheels pulling a chariot: “How could a poor wheel not creak if it were burdened with a heavy, unbearable burden”?
Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky (1658-1722)
The last major representative of the southwestern scholastic tradition in Great Russian preaching was Stefan Yavorsky, whose preaching works reflected all the basic requirements of the scholastic school for the form, structure and development of sermons.
Metropolitan Stefan, in the world Simeon, was born in 1656 in Galicia to Orthodox parents, poor nobles. Later, his family moved to the vicinity of Nizhyn, and he himself entered the Kiev-Mohyla College. Even before completing the full course, Jaworski went abroad to deepen his education, where he studied philosophy and theology in Polish Catholic schools. To do this, he was forced to fulfill the indispensable requirement of the Jesuits who headed these schools - to accept (at least externally) Catholicism in the form of Uniatism. Upon returning from Poland, he renounced Uniateism and took monastic vows with the name Stephen at the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. At the same time, he was appointed to the position of “official preacher” in the Lavra and other monasteries and churches, which he performed “with great benefit and delight to those who hear.” Possessing brilliant talent and deep theological education, Stephen soon established a reputation as a remarkable preacher. In 1700, already in the rank of abbot, he was sent on church and administrative affairs to Moscow, where Peter the Great noticed him, considered him useful in the affairs of transforming Russia, and in the same year appointed him metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom.
After the death of Patriarch Adrian, Yavorsky was appointed locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, and in 1721 president of the Holy Synod, a position he held until his death in 1722. However, only the first eleven years of his first hierarchical service, during which he enjoyed the favor of Peter I, Metropolitan Stefan had real freedom in preaching and administrative activities, and after 1711, when differences in the understanding of the goals and objectives of transforming the life of Russian society between the emperor and Metropolitan. Stefan was fully revealed, the latter remained at the head of the church hierarchy only nominally, constantly enduring hardships, accusations and insults from his enemies, among whom was Feofan Prokopovich.
The historical merit of Stefan Yavorsky in the era of Peter the Great was that in his spiritual structure he combined principles akin to Old Russian and New European civilization. The education and theological scholarship he received in the West freed him from the obscurantist rejection of everything new and foreign, so characteristic of the Old Believers, and respect for the tradition and authority of the Church gave him an understanding of the need to preserve the traditions of Russian Orthodox spirituality in the changed conditions, which was so lacking in Peter’s reformers. Sermon by Met. Stefana was relevant, consistent with the life of society of that era, responded to the needs of the modern environment and illuminated current events with the light of faith.
All words and conversations of Stefan Yavorsky (more than 250 in number) can be divided into:
dogmatic;
moral;
words for different occasions: commendable, solemn, grateful.
In the dogmatic words of Met. Stephen primarily chose topics (about prayer and intercession for us by the saints, about Sacred Tradition, about faith and good deeds, about the sacraments) that were directed against Lutheran ideas that were spreading in Russian society due to the influx of foreigners. At the same time, it is important that by directing his speech against the teachings of Luther and Calvin and his Russian contemporaries infected by their freethinking, the preacher strives not only to expose the lies of his opponents, but also to reveal the positive teaching of the Orthodox Church about the dogmas they dispute.
Western European civilization brought with it another serious illness into Russian society: in many people there was indifference to religious issues and the duties of piety of Orthodox Christianity. Stefan Yavorsky armed himself against this vice, especially widespread among people of the highest circle, preaching about the holy Orthodox faith as the source of heavenly wisdom, without which earthly wisdom does not bring any benefit to a person and is nothing more than foolishness.
Yavorsky also denounced the depravity of the morals of the society of that time, which, in his own words, had reached the point that he fears for the strength of Russia and fears that it will fall like the pillar of Siloam. Yavorsky rebels with great force against illegal divorces, which were often accompanied by violence on the part of their husbands (Peter I himself served as an example), against luxury, feasts and extravagance, generated by the very spirit of Peter’s society, against deceptions and lies in the courts. With special energy and especially often, Met. Stephen denounces his contemporaries for their coldness and inattention to worship.
Yavorsky’s solemn words were pronounced in connection with a variety of circumstances: declaration of war, victory, discovery of high treason, etc. In these sermons, Met. Stefan spoke about the attractive aspects of the personality of Peter I, about the successes of his foreign policy, about the beneficialness of internal reforms, denouncing only his contemporaries who, without criticizing the significance of Peter’s reforms, either condemned them or abused them.
Yavorsky's sermons are composed in the form of words; each of them consists of the following parts: theme, introduction, research, pathetic part, conclusion. Often sermons are based not on the content of the chosen subject, but on some allegorical explanation of one word from the text, or on some artificially posed question. Thus, citing the words of the Savior: “Remember Lot’s wife,” the preacher asks: “How can I remember my Savior? Should I sing a memorial service for her? Or should I remember her in litanies? We don’t know what her name is.”
In his words, Yavorsky often uses Holy Scripture as a source, but he does it quite scholastically, so that the result is a kind of mosaic picture that corresponds to what the preacher wants to say, but not to the content of the Biblical text. Wanting, for example, to praise the seaside location of the newly founded St. Petersburg, Yavorsky cites many texts of Holy Scripture that supposedly confirm his idea about the superiority of low-lying places, about the special closeness of the water element to God. Moreover, the texts were chosen so arbitrarily that the preacher could easily praise fire, air, mountains, etc. in the same way.
The life and work of Art. are connected with the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. Yavorsky, Ukrainian and Russian writer, church and political figure, philosopher. Art. Yavorsky (in the world Simeon Ivanovich) was born in 1658 in the city of Yavor (now Lviv region) into a family of a small nobleman, who later moved to the village. Krasilovka near Nizhyn. He received his primary education in Nizhyn, graduated from the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, and then, having accepted Uniatism, improved his knowledge in the colleges of Lvov, Lublin, Poznan, Vilna. Returning to Kyiv, he renounced his Uniate membership and became a monk under the name of Stephen. He taught poetics, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. In 1700 he was elevated to the rank of bishop and appointed Metropolitan of Ryazan, and after the death of Patriarch Andrian (+1702) - guardian of the patriarchal throne Using respect for Art. Yavorsky, as a representative of the conservative forces of the Russian clergy, Peter appointed him president of the Holy Governing Synod, which, after the reform of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1721, replaced the patriarchal government, and the sole episcopal government of the dioceses was replaced by the conciliar synodal government through the bishop. Died Art. Yavorsky in Moscow on November 16 (27), 1722, bequeathing his library to the Nizhinsky Monastery.
Art. Yavorsky was a highly educated man of his time. For poems in Ukrainian, Polish, Russian and Latin, he received the title of “laurel-bearing poet.” As vice-rector of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow, he reformed the educational process in it like the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and Western European universities, and founded a theater at the academy. In his sermons he supported and justified the need to reorganize the army, create a navy, develop trade and industry, and spread education. Author of many works of a religious and philosophical nature. At the time of writing, two volumes of St. Yavorsky, the third of the planned three-volume set has been prepared for publication.
As for the philosophical views of Art. Yavorsky, they were reflected in his philosophical course “Philosophical Competitions...”, which he taught at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy in 1691-1693. Philosophical course Art. Yavorsky's theory consisted of three parts: logic, physics and metaphysics, which corresponded to the then ideas about the structure of philosophical knowledge. Natural philosophy occupied a prominent place in the course, in the interpretation of the problems of which he gravitated towards the second scholasticism. Despite the theological orientation of the course, it contained many provisions and ideas that echoed the latest achievements of scientific and philosophical thought of that time, close to the views of J. Bruno, F. Bacon, R. Descartes, not to mention direct references and appeals to the works of R. Arriaga, F. Suarez, Fensen, then in the summer.
Following the general theistic concept at that time about the creation of the world by God, Art. Yavorsky, like other representatives of Ukrainian philosophical thought, represented by professors of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, identified God and nature, recognizing the materiality of the latter. He understood the very concept of matter in many definitions: mother, because it is the mother of forms; a subject, because all changes are subjectified in it; mass, because, dividing into parts, it forms various compounds; origin, since the principle of the generation of things arises; element, because everything arises with it and transforms in it. With the last st. Yavorsky connected the guess about the cycle of things in nature. In the relationship between form and matter, he gave primacy to matter, emphasizing that it is not form that generates matter, but on the contrary, matter is the primary subject, therefore form depends on matter. Matter is the cause of form; only the posteriors depend on it. Art. Yavorsky believed that matter is inactive. It is active, and this activity is measured quantitatively. Everything in nature consists of matter, because there is nothing in it that is earlier in terms of primary matter. Matter has its own existence, distinct from the existence of form. If matter existed thanks to the existence of form, then it would be created as much as forms were created, because no matter how many times it acquired all other forms, so many times it would perish and so many times forms would cease to exist. Matter, says Art. Yavorsky, following Aristotle, is ungenerated and indestructible. Primary matter is the real material cause of form and combination; it has not only potential existence, but also real actual existence in relation to a thing. Regarding spiritual forms, according to Yavorsky, they are also derivative, secondary and depend on matter.
Activity of matter Art. Yavorsky associated with the movement. He divided movement into four types, which coincide with Aristotle’s classification: birth and death, growth and decrease, change in quality, spatial movement. It is interesting that, when asking questions about changes in things, he used not just the concept of “negation”, but “negations of negations”, although he had not yet given it the form of universality, the law of development.
Recognizing the objective nature of causality, Art. Yavorsky classified causes according to Aristotle: material, formal, active, purposeful, making the assumption that causes, subordinating consequences, isolate themselves into the essence of things that arise and thereby determine them. At the same time, he was convinced of the direct dependence of natural things on God as a creative cause. In his course Art. Yavorsky put forward a number of conjectures regarding the relationship between motion and rest and their inconsistency. In contrast to those who believed that time exists only thanks to the intellect, he not only defended the objectivity of time and associated it with movement, but also noted: time is movement relative to the previous state of affairs. In his opinion, every continuous body consists of particles capable of dividing indefinitely.
Referring to the Descartes-Gassendi principle, Art. Yavorsky explained heat and other changes in natural phenomena by the movement of tiny particles. Quite often, to explain incomprehensible processes, he turned to the action of antiperestasis, by which he meant the change of one opposite process or phenomenon due to the presence of a second, opposite phenomenon that affects the first. For example, in winter the openings of the earth are tightly closed and the heat that the earth breathes cannot escape. Having accumulated, it warms the cave or basement. The philosopher was firmly convinced that people are not only capable of recognizing certain things, but also creating them themselves, as Albertus Magnus did by creating work.
Course Art. Yavorsky also included a psychology course, which is recognized as one of the first and most significant at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. When presenting this course, he relied on Aristotle’s work “On the Soul,” as well as other works in which biological processes were studied. Yavorsky considered the substantial concept of “soul” to be the subject of psychology. He considered the soul as a form of an organic body, as well as a physical body that has potential life, distinguishing three of its types: vegetative for plants, sensual for animals, rational for humans. Based on the natural science data of that time, Yavorsky gave a fairly thorough description of each of them, subordinating this material to substantiate his epistemological concept. Yavorsky had no doubt that the objects of sensations exist outside of us. They represent everything that opposes our sensations and is perceived by them. Sensory images are formed from objects and are stored with the same objects from which they originate. He divided sensation into external and internal, and to a certain extent coincided with Locke’s teaching about primary and secondary qualities. Yavorsky referred to internal sensations as a general sensation, idea, image, memory. Based on the statement about the sensitivity of the soul, he called these sensations material. He also included dreams and fantasies among internal sensations. The philosopher considered the brain to be the organ of internal sensations, and objects to be everything that is perceived by the external senses. To the question of how the soul is formed, he answered in the spirit of sensationalism.
Despite the recognition that the rational soul is created by God, Yavorsky repeatedly emphasized its connections with the body, making cognitive properties dependent on matter. When considering the issue of the relationship between reason and faith, he adhered to the position of distinguishing between philosophy and theology in accordance with the principle of double truth, which gave him the opportunity to remain loyal to religious ideology, and at the same time subconsciously, even against his own will, free philosophy from the annoying theological burn . And yet, when it came to faith, he rejected any interference in it by the mind, demanded that it be subordinated to the authority of the church, fees, dogmas, and considered theology to be the highest wisdom.
This did not at all mean a denial of Art. Yavorsky of the mind as such, its role and significance in human life. He was convinced that God endowed man with reason so that she could recognize and subjugate the world for her own needs, dominate “the birds of the air, the beasts and livestock of the earth, the fish that pass through the sea... the very elements of this world were subdued by reason to man, wherever he is, he rules over his will. The message is, as if he wants to possess the air in his need, he knows how to subordinate the fiery nature to his will, the earth born from it is more and in its treasures, he knows what his belongings are disposed of, fruits and riches ". He also did not recognize “fate,” fate, or the year, regarding them as phenomena of human fantasy, because it is not they, but the activity of man, his mind, that is the guarantee of human happiness. But again, against the general background of the above article. Yavorsky defended the idea of God predicting all historical events, defended the principles of medieval theology from heretical teachings, and was intolerant of any ideas of free thought to the point of justifying the murder of heretics when it came to religious faith. Fully supporting all the reforms of Peter I, Art. Yavorsky resolutely opposed the subordination of the church to secular power, asserting the priority of the former even in political affairs.
On August 20 / September 2, 2000, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople canonized King Stephen. In August 2007, the name of Saint Stephen of Hungary was included in the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church. Saint Stephen is the most revered of the Hungarian saints, and his personality was a key influence in the spread and strengthening of Christianity in Hungary.Background
The territory of modern Hungary was occupied by nomadic tribes of Hungarians during the resettlement in 896. The Hungarian tribes were originally pagans, but already in the 9th century, as they advanced from the northern Caucasus, they met Christian preachers. So, in 860, a group of Hungarians who were in Chersonesus listened to the sermons of St. Constantine-Cyril. In 880, Saint Methodius met with the Hungarians. The Slavic Christians conquered on the territory of the future Hungary were also to have an influence on the Hungarians. This fact is indicated by the fact that to this day in the Hungarian language such words of Slavic origin as kereszt - cross, barat - brother, etc. have been preserved.
The first half of the 10th century passed in constant Hungarian raids on Western Europe and Byzantium. After a series of crushing defeats, the Hungarian leaders had to look for ways of reconciliation. Relations began to improve both with the Byzantine Empire and with the German principalities, as well as with the papal throne.
By the middle of the 10th century, the Hungarians began to seek an alliance with Byzantium, peace was concluded, and the Hungarian leaders were baptized in Constantinople. The systematic preaching of the Eastern Christian Church in Hungary began. But later, due to the deterioration of relations, the missionary work of the Byzantines was suspended, including due to the lack of preachers. The Western Church also carried out preaching work on the territory of Hungary at that time.
It is worth considering that after Rome fell away from Orthodoxy, the activities of Byzantine missionaries to Christianize Hungary were hushed up, but archaeological finds testify to it (Byzantine crosses and reliquaries on the deceased, etc.).
Parents of Saint Stephen
 |
Saint Stephen's maternal grandfather, Prince Gyula (baptized Stephen), the second most influential ruler of the eastern part of Hungary in Hungary, was baptized in Constantinople in the 30s and 40s of the 10th century and received the rank of patrician from the Byzantine emperor. After baptism, “he took with him a monk named Hierotheus, famous for his piety. Patriarch Theophylact (931–956) ordained him bishop of the Ugorshchina (Hungary), and he converted many to Christianity out of pagan delusion. Gyula later did not abandon the faith, did not leave Christian captives unredeemed, but ransomed them, gave them help and freed them.” Through his labors, temples dedicated to Greek saints were built in eastern Hungary. Divine services were held in the temples according to the Greek rite, and Byzantine and Bulgarian priests and monks carried out missionary activities in the areas subordinate to it. The location of the bishop was presumably in the city of Marosvar, and then in the city of Canad.
According to a Russian source from the 12th century, Prince Gyula “died filled with true Christian faith, did many deeds pleasing to God, and went into the kingdom of God in peace.”
Charlotte, mother of St. Stephen, daughter of Gyula, was also converted to Christianity and brought up in a Christian spirit. After her marriage to the Hungarian prince Geza, she converted him to Christianity and brought him to baptism. She brought Christian priests of the Greek rite with her to the prince’s house.
Saint Stephen's father, Prince Geza, having turned from paganism to the Gospel, wished to spread it throughout the people, but did not succeed in this, although under him all his military leaders accepted Christianity. On the path of spreading the Christian faith, the prince resorted to coercion, so that “those whom he found evading, he directed threats and intimidation to the right path.”
Such a violent spread of faith is displeasing to God, so Prince Geza had a wonderful vision in which the Lord told him: “It is not given to you to accomplish what you are thinking in your mind, since your hands are stained with blood, but from you will come a son who is destined to be born, to whom the Lord entrusts the implementation of all this, in accordance with the plan of Divine providence.”
Birth of a saint and accession to the throne
The promised son, Saint Stephen, was born in 979 or 980. At the age of three, the child, who had previously bore the pagan name Vaik, was baptized and received the baptismal name Stefan (in Hungarian Istvan). The baptism apparently took place according to the Greek rite.
For dynastic reasons, in 996, Saint Stephen married the Bavarian Duchess Gisella, whose upbringing had previously been supervised by the Regensburg Bishop Saint Wolfgang. The priests and monks who accompanied her to Hungary began active preaching work, thanks to which the influence of the Western Church increased.
After the death of his father and accession to the princely throne in 997, Saint Stephen set himself the task of strengthening the state and ensuring the victory of Christianity in Hungary. As the great life of Saint Stephen writes about this, after the death of his father he had to overcome an internal war and he “under the banner of Saint Martin and the holy martyr George ... bathed the people in the water of baptism.”
Acceptance of royal power
 |
The crown with which Saint Stephen was crowned is apparently not identical to the relic that was later used for the coronation of Hungarian kings. The upper part of it dates back to the end of the 12th century; apparently, it previously contained relics - the skull of St. Stephen, and the lower part of the crown consists of a gift from the Byzantine emperor Michael VII Ducas, sent in 1074.
Christening of Hungary
After his coronation, Saint Stephen continued his course towards the baptism of Hungary.
If his father, Prince Geza, destroyed pagan temples, then Saint Stephen took up, first of all, the organization of preaching activities and the construction of temples.
In order to attract people to churches on Sundays, by decree of the king, the holding of fairs was determined on Sunday, as a result of which this day of the week is still called “fair day” in translation from Hungarian.
The christening of Hungary took place simultaneously with its unification. The uprisings of the rebellious princes Gyula and Ayton were defeated, and the royal power necessary to carry out the baptism of Hungary was strengthened.
In order to spread and strengthen Christianity in Hungary, Saint Stephen divided the country into ten dioceses. The diocese of Esztergomt and, apparently, the diocese in Kalocs received the status of archbishopric. Diocesan centers, in order to be reliably protected, were located, as a rule, in royal castles.
Saint Stephen fully contributed to the work of Christian preachers, but, unlike his father, he did not use force.
In accordance with the instructions of St. Stephen, every ten villages had to build a temple and supply it with everything necessary. The royal power took upon itself the supply of vestments to the temples. At the first stage, these were very small churches, which housed only an altar and could only accommodate a priest and clergy, and believers participated in the service standing outside, but these churches created the opportunity for the mass introduction of church-going Hungarians to the faith of Christ.
Already at the beginning of the reign, after the suppression of the rebellion of the feudal lords, the lands seized from the rebels were transferred to the construction of a monastery (the current monastery in Pannonhalma) in honor of St. Martin, who came from Pannonia (Sabaria). It was the first monastery in Hungary, but not the last, founded with the support of St. Stephen. Later, the monasteries of Pechvarad (1015), Zobor (1019), Bakonbel (1020) and others were built.
To create conditions for the pilgrimage of Hungarian Christians to holy places, Righteous Stephen built pilgrimage houses and a small monastery in honor of his heavenly patron in Rome, a monastery and pilgrimage houses in Jerusalem, as well as a “wonderfully decorated” temple in Constantinople. Priests and monks from Hungary were sent to serve in them.
Laws of Saint Stephen
The baptism of Hungary was also enshrined at the legislative level in the so-called laws of St. Stephen, most of which were devoted to the affairs of the Church. They begin with decrees on the inviolability and special royal protection of the property of the Church. “Those who, in their arrogant pride, think that they can seize the house of God and treat the property dedicated to God without respect... should be cursed as attackers on the house of God... At the same time, they should also feel the wrath of the lord king , whose good will they rejected and whose orders they violated.”
The text of the laws even contains elements of polemics with non-believers, and spiritual remarks about the principles of Christian life. “One should not listen to those who foolishly claim that the Lord has no need for the property dedicated to him, that is, for that which was given to the Lord as a gift. This property is under the royal protection as if it were his ancestral property, nay, he protects it even more strongly, because in proportion as God is superior to men, so much more important is God's property than that of men. Therefore he is deceived who is more concerned with his own affairs than with the affairs of God.” “If any crazy person, in his villainy, foolishly dares to turn the king away from his correct intentions (to protect church property) ... then, even if (this person) is needed for any worldly service, then let the king cut off and throw away it from yourself in accordance with what is said in the Gospel: if your foot, hand or eye troubles you, cut it off or prick it out and throw it away from you.”
The greatest respect for the priesthood, as servants of the Lord, is reflected in the chapter “On the work of priests”: “Let all our brethren know that the priest works harder than all of you. Since each of you bears only his own burdens, while he bears the burdens of both his own and other people. And therefore, just as he is for you, so you must work for him with full strength, so much so that if the need arises, then lay down your lives for them.”
The law required the observance of all Christian fasts: “If anyone breaks the strict fast, which everyone knows about, by eating meat, then let him fast for one week under constipation... If anyone eats meat on Friday, which is observed by all Christianity, then yes He will fast for one week, being constipated during the day.”
Strict measures were introduced to maintain order and order in churches. The law prescribed strict punishment for inappropriate behavior in the temple. “Those who come to church to listen to the Divine service and there during the liturgy whisper to each other, disturb others, uselessly gossip, and do not listen to God’s lessons and the teachings of the Church, if these are people of the highest stratum, then they must be shamed and driven out with shame their temple, but if they are people of the middle and lower strata, then in the courtyard of the temple in front of everyone, tied up, they must be scourged and shaved for their great insolence.”
Saint Stephen also sought to determine some issues related to the performance of church rites. This is what the law says about those who died without remission of sins: “If anyone has made his heart so hardened (which should be far from every Christian) that, not heeding the advice of the priest, he does not want to confess his sins, let him rest in his grave without any church burial and alms as an unbeliever. If the deceased died without confession due to the omission of his relatives and those around him, then enrich him with prayers and give consolation through alms, but the relatives must atone for their omission by fasting in accordance with the definition of the priest. Those who fell into the misfortune of sudden death, may they be buried with all church honors, since the judgments of God are a mystery and unknown to us.”
The legislation of St. Stephen laid the foundations for strengthening the foundations of Christian morality and ethics in a wild nomadic pagan society. Subsequent rulers of Hungary were unable to maintain legislation at its level of tolerance for human transgressions. Significantly stricter standards of punishment for offenses, including minor ones, were introduced.
Personal Piety of Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen was forced to carry out his ministry in a country inhabited by 120 different tribes, an “unbridled people” who had recently ravaged half of Europe with raids. The pagan priesthood resisted the introduction of Christianity, the old tribal aristocracy opposed the centralization of the country. Having suppressed the uprisings of his opponents at the beginning of his reign, righteous Stephen did not escape the conspiracies of his relatives at the end of his reign. At the same time, he strove to avoid unnecessary cruelty and was merciful to his enemies, especially to those who repented. From the very beginning of his reign, he was distinguished by his balanced and fair actions.
In foreign policy, Saint Stephen tried to do without aggression. Under him, the warlike people were forced to live in peace, the nomads began to switch to a sedentary lifestyle. At that time, a route was established through the country for the passage of pilgrims to Jerusalem. As the monk Rodulfus Glaber reported in 1044, “everyone at that time who followed from Italy and Gaul to the Holy Sepulcher sought, leaving the former, familiar path that passed through the seas, to follow the country of this king. He created a path much safer than any that existed before, and when he saw a monk (pilgrim), he accepted him and loaded him with an innumerable number of gifts. Under the influence of such a kind (reception), both the nobles and those belonging to the common people went to Jerusalem in countless numbers.”
Every year the king resigned his powers before God in the temple, showing that he received royal power from God only for temporary use, and not forever. The king's amazing Christian humility contrasted sharply with the morality of the people whose son he was.
Saint Stephen constantly gave out alms, including secretly and in disguise. Once, during such a distribution of alms, the beggars tore out part of his beard, but the saint was only happy about this, thanking the Mother of God for suffering for Christ’s sake, and subsequently resorted to distributing alms even more often.
Constantly working during the day for the good of the Church and the state, Righteous Stephen spent his nights in tears and prayers to the Lord. The Lord repeatedly proved His support for the saint, including by showing him miracles. Some of them are reported in the great life of righteous Stephen. In one case, warned in a dream about the unexpected approach of the Pechenegs, the king managed to organize the defense of the city of Fehervar in Transylvania in time and defeat the enemies. In another case, the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad, approaching Hungary, through the prayer of Stephen, received orders from unknown envoys to return, and thus the invasion was thwarted. Repeatedly, having learned about someone’s illness, Saint Stephen sent bread and vegetables, and the sick were healed through his prayers.
Instructions to my son
The character of Saint Stephen is well reflected by his instructions to the heir: “Rule meekly, with humility, peacefully, without malice and hatred! The most beautiful ornaments of a royal crown are good deeds, so it is fitting that the king should be adorned with justice, mercy, and other Christian virtues.”
In the instructions he compiled in 1013–1015 for the instruction of the heir to the throne, Duke Imre, Saint Stephen gives the following teachings.
Remain faithful to the Christian faith.“If you want to respect the royal crown, first of all, I bequeath... preserve the catholic (true) and apostolic faith with such zeal and vigilance that you set an example to all the subjects given to you by God, so that all church men can deservedly call you a true Christian.” “Believe in almighty God the Father, Creator of every creature, in His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the angel foretold and whom the Virgin Mary gave birth to, who suffered for the salvation of the whole world on the cross, and in the Holy Spirit, who spoke by the prophets and apostles, as into a single, absolutely inseparable, pure Divinity. Those who try to... divide, or diminish, or increase the Trinity are servants of heresy."
Treat the Church with respect.“My son, day after day, with ever increasing zeal, you need to protect the holy Church, so that it is replenished rather than diminished. That is why the first kings are called great, because they increased the Church. Do it too so that your crown is more glorified, your life is happier and longer.”
Treat the senior clergy with respect.“The decoration of the royal throne is the class of the highest clergy... If they treat you well, you need not fear enemies... their prayer offers you to almighty God. They must be protected as God’s people, but those who, God forbid, have committed serious offenses must be warned in private up to three or four times, and only then, if they do not listen, should the matter be referred to the Church.”
Treat nobles and knights with respect. They are warriors, not servants, they must be dominated without anger, pride, peacefully, humbly. “Remember that all people are born in the same condition, nothing exalts like humility, nothing degrades like pride and hatred.”
Carry out righteous justice and be tolerant.“If you want to receive honor for your kingdom, love fair justice, if you want to keep the soul in your power, be patient.” It is especially necessary to consider cases in which capital punishment is imposed with particular patience.
Treat immigrants well. “A country in which only one language is spoken and where only one culture is known is weak and poor. Therefore, I command, my son, to receive foreigners well and treat them well.”
Follow the prayer rule. When visiting the temple of God, you must constantly pray to God with the following words: “Send (God) from the holy heavens from the throne of Your glory (wisdom), so that it may be with me and help, so that I can understand what You please (at all times).”
Be merciful.“If a king is tainted by godlessness and cruelty, he pretends in vain to be called a king; he must be called a tyrant.” “Always and in everything, relying on love, be merciful. And not only to family, relatives, nobility, rich people, neighbors, but also to foreigners, moreover, to everyone who comes to you. Because the creation of love leads to the greatest happiness. Be merciful to everyone who suffers from violence, always keep God’s admonition in your heart: “I want mercy, not sacrifice.”
Relations with the Eastern Church
Acceptance of the crown from the pope did not mean a break with Byzantium and the Eastern Church. It had, first of all, not religious, but political reasons, namely: the opportunity to receive a royal title without becoming a vassal of the emperor and pope. It should also be taken into account that at that time Rome was still in unity with the other patriarchates.
All the activities of Righteous Stephen testify to a respectful attitude towards the Eastern Church, the preservation and development of ties with Byzantium, and the close relations between the Hungarian and Constantinople courts. In the second half of Saint Stephen's life, relations with Byzantium strengthened. An alliance was concluded. There was also a dynastic rapprochement: a Byzantine princess became the bride of the heir to the throne (later the tragically deceased Duke Imre).
At the same time (c. 1118), a Greek rite monastery dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in the city of Veszprém. Nine villages were donated to the monastery for eternal use. Under the threat of a curse, Saint Stephen forbade anyone, including bishops and even the king, from encroaching on the property and possessions transferred to the monastery for all eternity.
Presumably, Righteous Stephen resumed the activities of the Greek diocese in Savasentdemeter in the form of a monastery. The created churches in a number of cases were dedicated to saints revered primarily by the Eastern Church (Cosmas and Damian, Panteleimon, George, etc.). The veneration of these saints under Saint Stephen is also indicated by their image on the robe made for the planned coronation of the heir, Duke Imre, and later served for the coronation of the Hungarian kings.
It is noteworthy that the coat of arms of Hungary, known as the coat of arms of St. Stephen, contains a double cross, which is unusual for Catholic countries. It probably repeats the shape of a reliquary cross with a piece of the Life-Giving Cross, received by Righteous Stephen as a gift from the Byzantine Emperor Basil II.
As already mentioned, Saint Stephen built monasteries of the Greek rite in Constantinople and Jerusalem. Byzantine monks continued to live and preach in the country. The influence of the Eastern Church on the church life of Hungary is evidenced by the fact that, despite the schism of the Church, until the 13th century, the majority of monasteries continued to conduct services according to the charter of the Greek Church. Later Catholic sources believe that they were subordinate to the Latin bishops, but there is reason to believe that in Hungary, even after the fall of Rome, an Orthodox diocese operated in parallel for a long time.
Close ties with Constantinople continued after the death of Saint Stephen. An example of this was the acceptance of the crown by King Endre I in 1047 from Constantine IX Monomachos and recognition for the period of subjugation of Byzantium, the receipt of a new crown from Byzantium in 1074 (it became part of the so-called crown of St. Stephen) and threats in the 15th century from another great Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, who came into conflict with the pope, converted Hungary to Orthodoxy. In addition, it is worth noting that in the last decades of the existence of Byzantium, it was the Hungarians who most often responded to requests for help from the empire, which was fading under the blows of the Turks.
Demise of the Righteous King
The last years of Saint Stephen's life were overshadowed by the death of his son, the heir of Duke Imre, as well as by the struggle with the rebellious feudal lords who fought with the elderly king for power and succession to the throne. The king himself, along with solving state affairs, increasingly spent time in prayer. As the great life of the saint tells about this, “he often threw himself on his knees in the holy church and with tears offered God the fulfillment of God’s will according to God’s discretion... He always behaved as if he were at the judgment of Christ.”
Just before his death, Saint Stephen solemnly handed over the Church of Hungary and the country itself under the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, so dearly loved by him. The Great Life, compiled by Bishop Hartwick, describes it this way. On August 15, on the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, before his death, Righteous Stephen, “raising his hands up and raising his eyes to the stars, exclaimed thus: Queen of Heaven... in my last prayers I entrust under Your protection the Holy Church with her bishops and priesthood, the country with the people and with the masters, taking leave of them, I commend my soul into Your hands.” As Bishop Hartwick adds, the king asked in his prayers for the opportunity to die on the day of the Assumption.
And so it happened: righteous Stephen reposed in the Lord on August 15, 1038 and was buried in front of a massive crowd of people in a tomb in the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary along with his son Duke Imre.
During the burial of righteous Stephen, as the life tells us, many miracles happened: “those who came from all over the country, the weak and sick, were healed, the blind received their sight, the lame gained strength in their legs, lepers were cleansed, those who fought for life were healed, no matter who was sick with any disease, they were rewarded with healing.”
During the period of civil strife in the middle of the 11th century, the relics of the righteous Stephen were transferred from the sarcophagus to a safer place. Burial in a sarcophagus at that time was accepted only in Byzantium and Kievan Rus. The images on it are made in the Byzantine style and show the relocation of the soul to heavenly Jerusalem, where Saint Stephen aspired so much throughout his life. The sarcophagus itself has survived to this day.
After the capture of Székesfehérvár by the Turks in 1514, the relics of righteous Stephen were largely lost. The Holy Right Hand, as well as part of the saint’s skull, were taken out and from 1590 to 1771 were in the city of Dubrovnik, then the relics were returned to Hungary.
Since 1951, the relics have been located in St. Stephen's Basilica - the largest basilica in Budapest, and are, along with the crown of Righteous Stephen, the most revered shrine in the country.
On August 20, 2006, one of the particles of the surviving relics of St. Stephen was transferred to the Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Budapest. Also, a particle of his honest relics is kept in the reliquary of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
In the parishes of the Hungarian Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate, the veneration of St. Stephen is very widespread, whose memory Orthodox Hungarians treat with great reverence, and on August 20 / September 2, solemn services are held in his honor in all churches.
