medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The Venetian Gerard (in Hungarian, Gellért) was tutor to St. Emeric / Imre, son of king St. Stephen / István of Hungary. Named bishop of the newly erected see of Csanád in or slightly after 1035, he is the author of an unfinished _Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum_ and, perhaps, of some fragmentarily preserved Marian sermons. Although he has been styled Apostle of Hungary, the extent of his role in the Christianization of the kingdom, a process that had been under way since at least the later tenth century, is unknown. In 1046, during the troubled reign in Hungary of his unbeloved fellow Venetian Peter Orseolo (a nephew of king Stephen), Gerard was killed at Pest by "pagan" adherents of a native claimant to the throne. His hagiographers have treated him as a martyr for his faith rather than as a victim purely of nationality-based hatred or political rivalry. Canonized along with Stephen / István and Emeric / Imre in 1083, he is one of Hungary's patron saints. Today is his feast day in the diocese of Szeged-Csanád and his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Herewith a view of the hill (Gellért-hegy; Gellért Hill) in Budapest from which, according to one localization of his end, a seriously wounded Gerard is said to have been sent crashing down in a cart to his death by the shore of the Danube:
http://tinyurl.com/4qvcxw
Some period-pertinent images of Gerard of Csanád:
a) as depicted in a thirteenth-century mosaic in Venice's basilica patriarcale metropolitana primaziale cattedrale di San Marco:
https://cm.revues.org/docannexe/image/1718/img-1.jpg
b) as depicted (two pages; scenes) in the earlier fourteenth-century Hungarian Angevin Legendary (Cittŕ del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. lat. 8541, fols. 68r, 69v):
http://tinyurl.com/3uuyer
http://tinyurl.com/4nuh5q
Best,
John Dillon
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