Legenda maior Sancti Stephani regis
Miracles and Visions During Life
Stephen's healing power and gift of prophetic visions are introduced as signs of his future glory.
I don't think this should be passed over: that divine power wanted to show, during the man of God's own lifetime, how great his merit would be after death. For whenever anyone's illness was reported to him, he sent as medicine whatever he had on hand—a scrap of bread, or fruit, or aromatic herb—along with the command that the person get well; and through God's mercy, with the king's word accompanying it, the person at once recovered.1 After his glorious ascension into heaven and his marvelous enthronement with the Father, our Savior is said to have appeared bodily to only a few; but through visions he taught that many who were consoled would be given foreknowledge of things to come—and this also happened to this blessed man.2
Prophecy of the Pecheneg Invasion
Stephen receives a revelation warning of a Pecheneg attack and orders the people to take refuge in fortified cities, saving them from destruction.
So one night, suddenly awakened by a revelation, he ordered a courier to hurry within a day and a night to Alba Transsilvana and gather everyone living in the countryside into the cities' fortifications as quickly as he could. For he foretold that enemies of the Christians would come upon them—namely the Pechenegs, who were then threatening the Hungarians—and would plunder their possessions.3 Scarcely had the messenger carried out the king's orders when—look!—the unexpected disaster of the Pechenegs was there, laying everything waste with fire and plunder; yet through God's revelation, granted by the merits of the blessed man, safety was given to the people through the shelter of the fortifications.4
Read the original Latin
Non hoc preteræundum estimo, quod in viro Dei quanti meriti post obitum foret, divina virtus in vita sua demonstrare voluit, quippe quotiens alicuius hominis infirmitas auribus suis intimata fuit, missa sibi pro medicina, quam tunc in presenti poterat habere, particula panis, vel pomi, vel herbe aromatice, mandatum, ut sanus surgeret, transmisit, et Dei propiciatione verbum ipsius comitante statim sospitatem recepit. Post gloriosam ascensionem ad cælos et mirabilem patris consessionem, salvator noster paucis corporaliter apparuisse perhibetur, per visionem vero multos consolatos futurorum prescios esse docuit, quod et huic beato contigit. Quadam igitur nocte repente per revelationem quandam expergefactus, veredarium quendam infra diem et noctem ad Albam Transsilvanam precepit festinare et omnes in rure manentes ad munitionem civitatum, quam citissime posset congregare. Predixit enim superventuros christianorum hostes, videlicet qui tunc Ungaris imminebant, Bessos, et possessiones eorum depredaturos. Vix nuncius mandata regis complevit, et æcce Bessorum inopinata calamitas incendiis et rapinis cuncta devastans, per revelationem Dei meritis beati viri concessa animabus hominum salute per receptacula munitionum.
Notes
- 1 ↩Latin propiciatione: rendered as "mercy" for register; the sense is God's favorable, propitiating action enabling the cure, not a technical atonement claim.
- 2 ↩prescios read as praescios, "those with foreknowledge"; consessionem as co-session / seating with the Father.
- 3 ↩Bessos identified as the Pechenegs (medieval Bessi/Bisseni), the people then pressing on Hungary in this legend's historical setting.
- 4 ↩animabus rendered as "lives" because the immediate sense is physical rescue into fortresses; Latin anima can also mean soul, but the shelter context is bodily safety.
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