Although he was baptised (his baptismal name was Stephen), his Christian faith remained shallow and he continued to perform acts of pagan worship.

[4] The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, who listed the descendants of Grand Prince Árpád around 950, did not mention Géza.

[4] Géza's father arranged his marriage with Sarolt—a daughter of a Hungarian chieftain called Gyula, [4][5] who ruled Transylvania independently of the grand prince[5] and had converted to Christianity in Constantinople.

[7] Pál Engel wrote that Géza carried out a "large-scale purge"[7] against his relatives, which explains the lack of references to other members of the Árpád dynasty from around 972.

[7] Geyza, who was strict and cruel, acting in a domineering way, as it were, with his own people, but compassionate and generous with strangers, especially with Christians, although [he was] still entangled in the rite of paganism.

He gave clerics and monks leave to enter his presence; he offered them a willing hearing, and delighted them in the germination of the seed of true faith sown in the garden of his heart.A record on one Bishop Prunwart in the Abbey of Saint Gall mentions his success in baptising many Hungarians, including their "king".

[15] Kristó and other historians have said that the first Roman Catholic diocese in Hungary, with its seat in Veszprém, was set up in Géza's reign,[4] but their view has not been unanimously accepted.

When reproached by his priest for doing so, however, he maintained that the practice had brought him both wealth and great power.Taking advantage of internal conflicts which emerged in the Holy Roman Empire after Emperor Otto II's death, Géza invaded Bavaria and took the fortress of Melk in 983.

[7][4] Even before this marriage alliance, Géza convoked the Hungarian leaders to an assembly and forced them to take an oath confirming his son's right to succeed him.

[23] Based on the Polish-Hungarian Chronicle,[23][24] Szabolcs de Vajay wrote that the daughters' mother was Géza's alleged second wife Adelaide of Poland, but this has not been widely accepted.