Saint Gerard was an Italian bishop from Venice  who operated in the Kingdom of Hungary , and educated Saint Emeric of Hungary, the son of Saint Stephen of Hungary. He played a major role in converting Hungary to Christianity while he was the bishop of Csanád.

At Baptism he received the name Jorge and belonged to a family from Dalmatia, which is descended from the Sagredo lineage. At the age of 5 he had a serious fever that his parents implored the grace of Saint George to heal.

Once cured and he had reached the required age, he entered the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore on the Maggiore Island in Venice and in memory of his recently deceased father, he took the name Gerard. After a few years he was elected Prior of the Monastery and later Abbot but shortly after he resigned because he wanted to go on pilgrimage to Bethlehem.

He left in a ship, reached Zara, from where instead of continuing to the Holy Land, he went to Hungary where he settled. He was persuaded by Saint Stephen of Hungary to work in the evangelisation of the Magyars. However, he did not want to stay at the Court and for seven years he lived as a Hermit in the Beel.

Later he was tutor to Prince Saint Emeric and in 1035, he was elected the first Bishop of Csnád where he worked with the utmost zeal, especially in liturgical observance and in the evangelisation of the people; they called him the Apostle of Hungary.

During the pagan reaction to the death of King Saint Stephen, he was martyred in Buda, where he was stoned and pierced by spears, locked in a barrel, and was thrown into the Danube from the top of a hill that today is called “Gellerthegy” – “Mount of San Gerard” as he had refused to crown idolatrous kings.

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