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hungrigh.txt
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2000-03-29
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This is the read me file for the following image files :
hungrig1.gif (the smaller relic holder of the Holy Right
Hand of king Saint Stephen I. built in 1590)
hungrig2.gif (the larger relic holder built in neogothic
design in 1862 to hold the smaller relic
holder.
hungrig3.gif (the larger relic holder built in neogothic
design in 1862 to hold the smaller relic
holder.
THE HOLY RIGHT HAND
These pictures show the hand-relic of the first Hungarian
christian king Saint Stephen I. (1000-1038) which is kept in great
reverence by the Hungarians. Saint Stephen I. accomplished the
historic mission to turn to christianity the pagan Hungarian tribes
who arrived in Transylvania in 896 A.D. and to establish the
Hungarian state. In this way, the new christian Hungarian state
could well fit in the community of the other christian kingdoms of
Europe and Saint Stephen I., by turning his nation to christians,
ensured the future of Hungary for the next one thousand years. For
this huge achievement, he received the title "apostolic king" and
he was canonized in 1083, which was initiated by king Saint Laszlo
I. who was himself canonized, too (see hungstl.gif). As part of the
canonization process, on August 20. 1083 (the day of Stephen in the
christian world), the remains of king Saint Stephen I. were
elevated from the crypt of the coronation cathedral in
Szekesfehervar and the entire right arm was removed from the body
and prepared for preservation. King Saint Laszlo I. appointed an
abbott called Mercurius, who was responsible for the inventory
keeping of the treasury of the cathedral, to store up the Holy
Right Hand of Saint Stephen I. at his private mansion in county
Bihar, eastern Hungary. Later they built an abbey at Mercurius'
land to keep the Holy Right Hand which became a pilgrimage site
later, and throughout the years a town erected in its neighbourhood
which was also called Holy Right. According to the unjust peace
treaty of Trianon at Versailles in 1920, the possession of the town
Holy Right, which took its name from the holiest relic of the first
Hungarian king, more justifiably can belong to Rumania rather than
to Hungary, and with a motivation impossible to follow, the Allies
annexed the town, along with entire Transylvania to Rumania. The
town is called Siniob today.
The present day Holy Right Hand used to be a complete right
arm, and it is believed that the lower arm is kept in Lemberg
(Ukraine), whereas the upper arm is in the Saint Stephen cathedral
in Vienna, where the inventory lists it since 1457.
In the late 11th century, Hungarian king Kalman the Booklover
attached a little parchment plate to the Holy Right Hand with latin
words on it: "Dextera beati Stephani Regis et Confessioris
gloriosi" (i.e. The right hand of blessed king Stephen, glorious
confessor). This piece of parchment testified the origin of the
relic and was rolled up and inserted between the fingers of the
hand.
The Holy Right Hand was kept in the abbey at Holy Right,
county Bihar, until the Tartar invasion in 1241 when the Hungarian
king Bela IV. rescued it to Raguza (Dubrovnik, Croatia) and left it
in the care of the dominican monks. The monks placed it in their
church, the Saint Jacob abbey, kept it with great reverence, and
when they put it on public display on the day of Stephen (August
20), they locked the gates of the city and doubled the guards. In
1590, they build a relic holder for the Holy Right Hand made of
silver and ground glass (see hungrig1.gif) and since 1618 they
listed it in their abbey inventory. Many historians agree that the
lower and upper arm was detached from the right hand by the
dominican monks and from here they were taken to Lemberg and
Vienna.
In 1771, Habsburg Maria Theresa reigning queen in Hungary
brought back the Holy Right Hand from Raguza and placed in in the
imperial palace of Schonbrunn, Vienna. She had a glass coffin made
for it and put a silver frame around the little parchment plate
which carried the relic with its testimonial writing. After this,
she gave it back to the Hungarians, and she left it in the
responsibility of the priest of the parish of the royal palace in
Buda (capital of Hungary then).
In 1862, the Hungarian Bishopric ordered a closed, chapel-
shaped, ornamental relic holder to be built in neogothic design
using silver and ground glass, and the smaller holder made in
Raguza to be placed inside it (see hungrig2.gif, hungrig3.gif).
Since 1882, the responsible person for the care of the Holy
Right Hand has been the priest of the parish of the royal palace in
Budapest, who was appointed by the king.
In 1944, as the front approached Budapest, the small relic
holder with the Holy Right Hand was rescued to Austria where Dr.
Rohracher, archbishop of Salzburg kept it. The neogothic chapel-
shaped holder remained in the royal palace, and unfortunately, the
building received a direct bomb hit and the little parchment plate,
along with its accompanying photographs, perished in the flames.
The neogothic holder also disappeared and everybody thought that it
was destroyed under the ruins.
On Stephen's day, August 20 1945, Pater Fabian Flynn, priest
of the US Army, brought back the Holy Right Hand from Austria and
handed over to Bela Witz, who was the priest at the royal palace
that time.
It was after the war that a message arrived to Bela Witz from
a dominican church in the outskirts of Budapest (the Dominican
Order seems to faithfully carry with the Holy Right Hand throughout
its history) that the larger chapel-shaped, neogothic relic holder
was not lost, because a young priest called Imre L'hullier found it
within the ruins of the sieged royal palace where it was tossed in
a ditch. He recognized it, took it home and hid it.
Today, the Holy Right Hand is resting in the Saint Stephen
cathedral in Budapest and, along with the Holy Crown and the
coronation jewels (see hungcr1-9.gif, etc.), it represents one of
the very highly regarded historic objects for the Hungarians. It is
a silent witness of the winding Hungarian road of history which was
spiked with blessings and damns, cares and cheers, despairs and
hopes, but which could never be so hard on the Hungarians to break
the spirit of Hungary.
Dr. Andras Szeitz
University of British Columbia
szeitz@unixg.ubc.ca