[2] Bishop Benedict [...] collected a sizeable army on the king's command and was about to march to his aid when he heard that the Tatars [Mongols] had destroyed the city of Eger.
[...] Encouraged by the fact that he had a few days before attacked and defeated a minor group of them, he dismissed the troops and pursued the Tatars in order to recover bits of it lest they be lost.
Then, when the ghost riders appeared from below the hill in battle line, as planned, the Hungarians thought that they had fallen into a trap, turned around and ran away fast.
The bishop, however, returned with a few men to [Várad], stayed there a while to collect some troops, then crossed the Danube and escaped.Benedict was born at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries.
[6] After the death Alexander, the majority of the cathedral chapter of Várad (present-day Oradea, Romania) elected Benedict as his successor around May 1231.
[7] His candidacy was supported by his patron, Duke Béla, who administered Transylvania and other parts of Eastern Hungary, including Bihar County, where the diocese mostly laid.
Pope Gregory considered Primogenitus as the lawful Bishop of Várad and allowed him to borrow 150 silver denari at the expense of the diocese.
As one of his canons, Roger of Torre Maggiore preserved the events in his account Carmen Miserabile, the town was captured and devastated by the Mongols.
[8][9] In Transdanubia, Benedict joined the royal accompaniment of Béla IV, who fled the disastrous Battle of Mohi from his Mongol pursuers.