Greater Legend of Saint Stephen
An anonymous Latin Life of King Stephen I of Hungary, older than the reworking by Bishop Hartvic, who copied most of it. It tells of his wars with pagan rebels, his bishoprics and monasteries and his coronation.
The Life is anonymous. Its editor, W. Wattenbach, connects it with the public veneration of the king that followed the raising of his body in 1083, when a legend was needed for the cult. It is a saint’s Life and not a chronicle: it was written to show a holy king, and it gives few dates. It puts the death of Stephen’s father in 997 and the coronation “in the fifth year” after it. Of the crown it says only that letters of apostolic blessing were brought and that Stephen I of Hungary was then acclaimed, anointed and crowned.
In the edition used here the additions that Hartvic made to this Life are printed in smaller type beneath the passages they replace, so that the two versions of the coronation can be read on one page.
Cited in
- AD 1000 or 1001, estimated date