Caput 7
The King's Holy Vow
King Ladislaus, pondering God's blessings, resolves to go to Jerusalem and, if necessary, die for Christ.
So in those days, as things fell out for him as he had hoped, seeing the tokens of God's love toward him, he began carefully to ponder what devout, what singular, or what most pleasing offering he might return to the Author of all good for so many blessings.1 He therefore resolved to go to Jerusalem, and there, if need be, to die for Christ — who, though he was the radiance of glory and the exact image of God's being, did not hesitate to endure the most cruel death of the cross for the redemption of humankind.
The Nations Seek His Guidance
Leaders of the Franks, Lotharingians, and Alemanni, inspired by Ladislaus's fame, ask him to lead their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
As the fame of holy King Ladislaus spread far and wide, the leaders of the Franks, the Lotharingians, and the Alemanni vowed to make the same pilgrimage and unanimously asked the pious King Ladislaus to lead and guide them and their people.2
Death in the Service of Peace
Before the pilgrimage can begin, Ladislaus leads a campaign against the Bohemians, falls ill, receives the Eucharist, and dies joyfully in the Lord.
But before they could gather in Hungary, the devout king, pressed by the needs of his own kingdom, set out on a campaign against the Bohemians. There, once peace was restored with his honor intact, and while he was already thinking of returning home, he was seized by a sudden illness and began to lose all his physical strength. He summoned the princes of the kingdom and told them that his death was at hand.3 When they heard this, the cry of the multitude mourning the death of that most devout king rose up to heaven. But the king, after receiving the Eucharist—him in whom he had faithfully believed, whom he had loved with his whole heart, and whom he had sought with all his strength—passed joyfully to the Lord.4
The Nation's Grief
With Ladislaus's death, the hope of his soldiers perishes, and all Hungary—clergy and laity, rich and poor, young and old—mourns for three years.
So all the hope of his soldiers who had sworn themselves to Christ's service falls with King Ladislaus alone. Before him the whole people of Hungary mourned, clergy and people alike, rich and poor as one, young men and young women, squalid in mourning clothes; for three full years they held no dances, and instruments of every kind of music fell silent through the time of mourning.
Read the original Latin
His ergo diebus, ad uotum ei contingentibus, uidens diuine circa se dilectionis iudicia, cepit sollicite meditari, quid pium, quid unicum, quidue deo gratissimum pro tot bonis bonorum auctori retribuat. statuit igitur ire Ierosolimam, et illic si oporteret mori pro Christo, qui cum esset splendor glorie et figura substancie dei, non dubitauit crudelissimam mortem crucis pro redimendis hominibus sustinere.
cum autem fama sancti Ladislai regis nomen longe lateque diffudisset, duces Francorum, Lothoringorum et Allemannorum, idem peregrinacionis iter conuouentes, pium regem Ladislaum sibi suisque ducem et preceptorem fore concorditer pecierunt.
sed antequam in Ungariam conuenirent, pius rex urgente regni sui necessitate contra Bohemos in expedicionem profectus est. ubi reformata cum honore suo pace, dum iam regredi cogitaret, egritudine repentina correptus, uiribus corporis cepit omnino destitui, conuocatisque regni principibus indicauit dissolucionem sui corporis imminere. quo audito clamor multitudinis plangencium de morte piissimi regis ad celum extollitur. sed rex accepta ewkaristia, in quem fideliter credidit, quem toto corde dilexit, et quem tota uirtute quesiuit, feliciter migrauit ad dominum.
cadit ergo in solo rege Ladizlao tota militum eius in Christi seruicia iuratorum expectatio. planxit ante eum uniuersitas Ungarorum, clerus et populus similiter, in unum diues et pauper, iuuenes et uirgines lugubres indumentis squalidi, continuo trium annorum spacio coreas non duxerunt, omnisque musici generis instrumenta intra tempus luctus siluerunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩Rendered as 'tokens' (manifestations/dispensations of divine love), not forensic judgments.
- 2 ↩Read as medieval convoventes (from con-voveo), 'vowing together'; less likely alternatives would change the participle's force, but pilgrimage-vow sense fits the Jerusalem plan in the preceding section.
- 3 ↩dissolucionem sui corporis: traditional hagiographic phrasing for approaching death; rendered as 'dissolution of his body' to keep the physical finality of the Latin.
- 4 ↩ewkaristia / in quem... quem... quem: the relative chain is masculine and personal, treating Christ present in the Eucharist as the One believed, loved, and sought; Eucharist is kept as the sacramental term.
Legenda Sancti Ladislai regis (Life of Saint Ladislaus of Hungary) companion
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