Legenda maior Sancti Stephani regis
Legenda maior Sancti Stephani regis
We read in the prophecy written about the apostles that "their sound has gone out into all the earth," and the rest. This is proven to have been said not only of the Twelve, but of all who were sent by God to preach the Gospel—by whose faith and words and way of life the Church nourished her growth. Among these, this most Christian man is counted not the least: the fame of his good will and work—which he practiced in building churches throughout the full reach of his own domain—he had spread through far-off and most famous lands.1 For in Jerusalem itself—the city of Christ's life according to his humanity—he built a monastery of monks, and enriched it with estates and vineyards that supplied abundance for their daily food.2 Also in the capital of the world, Rome, under the title of Stephen the first martyr, twelve3 communities of canons he generously established with all their holdings, and a stone wall built around the enclosure, with houses and hostels for Hungarians who came seeking, for prayer, the thresholds of the blessed prince of the apostles, Peter.4 He did not leave the imperial city of Constantinople itself without the gift of his benefactions either: he gave it a church of marvelous workmanship, built and supplied with everything it needed. Rightly, then, within the bounds of his rule he won the name of apostle, because even if he himself did not take up the office of preaching the Gospel, he still became the preachers' leader and teacher and established the support of his protection and provision.5
Read the original Latin
Legimus in prophetia de apostolis scriptum, quod 'in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum' et cetera. Hoc non solum de duodecim, sed de omnibus a Deo missis ad ævangelizandum dictum probatur, quorum fide et verbis et moribus incrementum pavit æcclesia. De quibus iste christianissimus non minimus fuisse computatur, bone voluntatis et operis fama, quam in edificandis æcclesiis in amplitudine proprii iuris exercuit, longe positas terras et famosissimas disperserat. Construxit enim in ipsa conversationis Christi secundum humanitatem civitate Iærusalem monachorum cenobium, prediis ditavit et vineis, ad victum cottidianum copiam ministrantibus. In capite quoque mundi, Roma sub titulo protomartyris Stephani XII. canonicorum congregationes cunctis pertinentiis habundanter statuit et maceriam in circuitu lapide muratam cum domibus et hospitiis Ungarorum orationis causa beati principis apostolorum, Petri limina querentium. Ipsam quoque regiam urbem Constantinopolim beneficiorum munere non privavit, qui ecclesiam mirifici operis constructam cum omnibus necessariis suis donavit. Merito igitur infra terminos sue dominationis nomen adeptus est apostoli, quoniam et si ipse ævangelizandi non assumpsit officium, predica- torum tamen dux et magister æius tutaminis et sustentationis instituit solatium.
Notes
- 1 ↩iste christianissimus is left as 'this most Christian man' (Stephen); the epithet is laudatory, not a formal title.
- 2 ↩conversationis Christi secundum humanitatem rendered as Christ's earthly life/sojourn as man, naming Jerusalem as the place of the Incarnate Lord's human dwelling.
- 3 ↩Sentence is grammatically incomplete as segmented; XII almost certainly belongs with the following canonicorum (twelve canons / a community of twelve). Verb and object continue in s6.
- 4 ↩Continues s5; read together as establishing at Rome, under the title of the protomartyr Stephen, communities of (twelve) canons with full endowments and a walled Hungarian pilgrim compound.
- 5 ↩Normalized predica- torum as predicatorum and æius as eius; sense is that Stephen, though not a preaching apostle himself, led, guarded, and maintained the preachers.
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