The feast day of King Saint Stephen of Hungary, who oversaw his nation's conversion to Christianity in the eleventh century, is observed by the Catholic Church on August 16.

The original Saint Stephen, the Church's first martyr, is claimed to have appeared in a vision before the future saint's birth in 975, telling the duchess Sarolt she would bear a son who would evangelize their nation.

Sarolt is thought to have been converted and baptized by the bishop Saint Adalbert of Prague together with her husband, the Hungarian duke Geza. In 985, Vaik, their son, was baptized by the same saint, who gave him the name Stephen.

Geza had an ambition to convert Hungarians to Catholicism, a wish Stephen shared after he reached adulthood and succeeded him in authority in 1001. He utilized their wealth to construct a monastery and invited clergy to convert the populace after decisively defeating a coalition of competing pagan nobility.

Stephen enacted legislation that gave Christianity the upper hand over paganism and dispatched an embassy to Rome to ask the Pope to formally recognise him as king. Pope Sylvester II granted the request, gifting Stephen a gold processional cross and a crown as well as granting him some religious rights.

He was very diligent in his duties as king, spending the remainder of his time on his household and his religious responsibilities, which included giving to the ill and the needy and worshiping God. Stephen's wife Gisela was related to the emperor, eventually canonized as Saint Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire.

Stephen, who had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, commissioned the construction of various churches in Hungary and elsewhere. Her intercession is credited with averting a conflict between Conrad II's Holy Roman Empire and Hungary as well as a plot to kill Stephen.

Additionally, the Hungarian king founded a monastery in Jerusalem and organisations to assist travellers in other significant towns. Stephen's acquaintances and correspondents included saints, and he carried out the Pope's call to use his royal authority for the sake of the Church.

The king, however, experienced suffering when only one of his children made it to adulthood. Emeric, the only surviving child of Stephen, was brought up strongly Catholic and was destined to succeed him. However, Emeric passed away prior to Stephen in 1031 due to a hunting accident.

Emeric was ultimately canonized as a saint in his own right, and Stephen gradually came to rejoice that his son had been allowed to enter God's presence before him. However, the king's latter years were characterized by his illness and a family feud over the king's succession.

Stephen gave his last address to Church and government officials in 1038 on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, urging them to defend and advance the Catholic faith.

One of the king's last petitions was to the Virgin Mary: “To thee, O Queen of heaven, and to thy guardianship, I commend the holy Church, all the bishops and the clergy, the whole kingdom, its rulers and inhabitants; but before all, I commend my soul to thy care.”

On August 15, 1038, St. Stephen of Hungary passed away. He was buried next to his son, St. Emeric, and the two were jointly declared saints in 1083. Saint Stephen of Hungary is the patron saint of bricklayers and Hungary.

Other Saints of the Day
Saint Diomedes
Saint Serena
Saint Hyacinth
Saint Roch
Saint Uguzo