Emmerich (saint)

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Statue of Emmerich in Máriaremete

Emmerich or Imre (* around 1000/1007; † September 2, 1031 ) was a Hungarian prince from the House of Arpaden , a son of Stephan I the Holy King of Hungary (1000-1038) and Gisela of Bavaria (* 984 / 985, † 1060), from the house of the Ottonians , a sister of Emperor Heinrich II.

In the chronicles he is called Heinrich or Henricus and also Emericus . This was probably his original name, which he had received after his uncle, Heinrich II the Holy , and which was Latinized from the synonymous Haimrich or Haimerich to Emericus and in German to Emmerich or Emerich .

He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

Life

According to legend, Emmerich received an extremely religious education from Bishop Gellért . Practiced asceticism is said to have been an everyday routine in the life of the young prince; he is said to have slept little, instead reading through the nights or praying. He is also said to have sworn to preserve his innocence, and to have kept this even after his marriage.

Emmerich was the only son of Stephen to reach adulthood. According to chronicles, although he married - according to his father's wishes - more information about his marriage is scarce. He is said to have married the daughter of Kresimir , a Croatian prince, around 1026 . Other sources, however, mention the unknown daughter of Miesko, a Polish prince.

His father, Stephan, tried to prepare Emmerich's government well. Like Emperor Constantine , Stephan put together a parenesis entitled “de institutione morum” for his son. This included u. a. Advice, wisdom and commandments. This document was later incorporated into the general “Corpus Juris”.

After Stephan had made peace with the Germans, he wanted his son to be co-ruler during his lifetime and called the nobles together to have him crowned. But Emmerich died unexpectedly on September 2, 1031, presumably because of a wound he had sustained in a wild boar attack while hunting. His life became the source of various heroic legends. People made pilgrimages to his grave in Székesfehérvár shortly after his death.

King Ladislaus I operated the canonization of Emmerich. This took place on November 5, 1083 (by the elevation of the bones) together with that of his father by Pope Gregory VII. His memorial day is November 4 in Germany and November 5 in Hungary. In the depictions he is usually a young knight with a lily as an attribute.

He was the namesake for twelve Hungarian villages.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ European Family Tables New Series, Volume II, Plate 153; Verlag JA Stargardt, Marburg, 1984
  2. ↑ See Italian Wikipedia sv Amerigo
  3. ↑ LThK sv Emerich

literature

  • Vita in: SS. Rer. Hungar. II (Budapest 1938) 50-60; ActaSS Nov. II / I (1894) 477-491.
  • Thomas von Bogyay: Principles of the History of Hungary , 4th revised. Ed., Darmstadt 1999.
  • Gyula Kristó : The first kings of Hungary: the rulers of the Arpad dynasty [From the Hungarian. by Claudia Sándor], Herne 1999.
  • Clemens Heydenreich: Saint Emmerich and the “Legenda sancti Emerici ducis” . In: Klaus Herbers, Lenka Jiroušková, Bernhard Vogel (eds.): Miracle reports of the early and high Middle Ages . (= Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe, Series A, Vol. 43), Darmstadt 2005, pp. 246-253.
  • István Lázár: A Brief History of Hungary , Vienna 1990.
  • Lexicon of the Middle Ages : Volume VIII, Munich 2002.
  • Liber de institutione morum . In: Monumenta rerum hung. Arpadiana , pp. 299-309. (Later: M. Florianus, Hist. Hung. Fontes domestici , I. 162.)
  • Ferenc Makk: Hungarian Foreign Policy (896-1196) [From the Hungarian. By Tibor Schäfer], Herne 1999.
  • Miklás Molnár: History of Hungary: from the beginning to the present , Bamberg 1999.
  • Jenő Szűcs: Nation and History: Studies [From the Hungarian. transfer by Johanna Kerekes], Gyoma 1981.
  • Ekkart Sauser:  Emmerich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 364–365.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Clemens Jöckle: The great lexicon of saints , Cologne 2003, S121f

Web links

Commons : Emmerich (Heiliger)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Emmerich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian prince
DATE OF BIRTH around 1007
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1031