[5][6] Both his son's Greater Legend and the nearly contemporaneous Thietmar of Merseburg described Géza as a cruel monarch, suggesting that he was a despot who mercilessly consolidated his authority over the rebellious Hungarian lords.

[8][9] Many historians—including Pál Engel and Gyula Kristó—propose that her father was identical with "Gylas", who had been baptized in Constantinople around 952 and "remained faithful to Christianity",[10] according to Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes.

[15][17] Stephen's official hagiography, written by Bishop Hartvic and sanctioned by Pope Innocent III, narrates that he "was fully instructed in the knowledge of the grammatical art" in his childhood.

[4][24] This marriage established the first family link between a Hungarian ruler and a Western European ruling house,[25] as Gisela was closely related to the Ottonian dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors.

[21] Gisela was accompanied to her new home by Bavarian knights, many of whom received land grants from her husband and settled in Hungary, helping to strengthen Stephen's military position.

[35] Stephen, who, according to the Illuminated Chronicle, "was for the first time girded with his sword",[38] placed the brothers Hont and Pázmány at the head of his own guard and nominated Vecelin to lead the royal army.

[41] Hont and Pázmány were, according to Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum and the Illuminated Chronicle, "knights of Swabian origin"[42] who settled in Hungary either under Géza or in the first years of Stephen's reign.

[25] His body was quartered and its parts were displayed at the gates of the forts of Esztergom, Győr, Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia, Romania) and Veszprém in order to threaten all of those who were conspiring against the young monarch.

[50] By ordering the display of one part of Koppány's quartered corpse in Gyulafehérvár, the seat of his maternal uncle, Gyula the Younger, Stephen asserted his claim to rule all lands dominated by Hungarian lords.

[63] According to the contemporaneous Adémar de Chabannes, a spear had been given to Stephen's father by Emperor Otto III as a token of Géza's right to "enjoy the most freedom in the possession of his country".

Those who die a sudden death shall be buried with all ecclesiastical honor; for divine judgment is hidden from us and unknown.Many Hungarian lords refused to accept Stephen's suzerainty even after his coronation.

[86] On the other hand, the Polish-Hungarian Chronicle states that the Polish duke occupied large territories north of the Danube and east of the Morava as far as Esztergom in the early 11th century.

[88] The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that Stephen "led his army against Kean, Duke of the Bulgarians and Slavs whose lands are by their natural position most strongly fortified"[89] following the occupation of Gyula's country.

[90] According to a number of historians, including Zoltán Lenkey[90] and Gábor Thoroczkay,[69] Kean was the head of a small state located in the southern parts of Transylvania and Stephen occupied his country around 1003.

[69] Bruno of Querfurt's report of the Black Hungarians' conversion by force suggests that Stephen conquered their lands at the latest in 1009 when "the first mission of Saint Peter"[95]—a papal legate, Cardinal Azo—arrived in Hungary.

[126] His silver dinars bearing the inscriptions STEPHANUS REX ("King Stephen") and REGIA CIVITAS ("royal city") were popular in contemporary Europe, as demonstrated by counterfeited copies unearthed in Sweden.

[119][122] Gerard, a Benedictine monk who arrived in Hungary from the Republic of Venice between 1020 and 1026, initially planned to continue his journey to the Holy Land, but decided to stay in the country after his meeting with the king.

[131] His lands were transformed into a Hungarian county and the king set up a new bishopric at Csanád (Cenad, Romania), Ajtony's former capital, which was renamed after the commander of the royal army.

[116][136] Conrad II's biographer Wipo of Burgundy narrated that the Bavarians incited skirmishes along the common borders of Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire in 1029, causing a rapid deterioration in relations between the two countries.

But King [Stephen], whose forces were entirely insufficient to meet the Emperor, relied solely on the guardianship of the Lord, which he sought with prayers and fasts proclaimed through his whole realm.

[146] Emeric's death jeopardized his father's achievements in establishing a Christian state,[147] because Stephen's cousin, Vazul—who had the strongest claim to succeed him—was suspected of an inclination towards paganism.

You are a child, descendant of rich parents, living among soft pillows, who has been caressed and brought up in all kinds of comforts; you have had a part neither in the troubles of the campaigns nor in the various attacks of the pagans in which almost my whole life has been worn away.The following family tree presents Stephen's ancestors and his relatives who are mentioned in the article.

[163] His main achievement was the establishment of a Christian state that ensured that the Hungarians survived in the Carpathian Basin, in contrast to the Huns, Avars and other peoples who had previously controlled the same territory.

[178] Having completed the office of Vespers the third day, everyone expected the favors of divine mercy through the merit of the blessed man; suddenly with Christ visiting his masses, the signs of miracles poured forth from heaven throughout the whole of the holy house.

[170] Upon the liberation of Buda from the Ottoman Turks, Pope Innocent XI expanded King Saint Stephen's cult to the entire Roman Catholic Church in 1686,[170] and declared 2 September his feast day.

[186] Stephen is venerated as the patron saint of Hungary,[170] and regarded as the protector of kings, masons, stonecutters, stonemasons and bricklayers,[187] and also of children suffering from severe illnesses.

[178] Why is it, brothers, that his other limbs having become disjointed and, his flesh having been reduced to dust, wholly separated, only the right hand, its skin and sinews adhering to the bones, preserved the beauty of wholeness?

The right hand of the blessed man was deservedly exempt from putrefaction, because always reflourishing from the flower of kindness it was never empty from giving gifts to nourish the poor.The Holy Dexter was kept for centuries in the Szentjobb Abbey, except during the Mongol invasion of 1241 and 1242, when it was transferred to Ragusa (now Dubrovnik, Croatia).

[195] My dearest son, if you desire to honor the royal crown, I advise, I counsel, I urge you above all things to maintain the Catholic and Apostolic faith with such diligence and care that you may be an example for all those placed under you by God, and that all the clergy may rightly call you a man of true Christian profession.

However, dearest son, even now in our kingdom the Church is proclaimed as young and newly planted; and for that reason she needs more prudent and trustworthy guardians lest a benefit which the divine mercy bestowed on us undeservedly should be destroyed and annihilated through your idleness, indolence or neglect.King St Stephen has been a popular theme in Hungarian poetry since the end of the 13th century.