Dzieje kultu św. Emeryka w średniowiecznej Polsce
The history of the cult of St. Emeryk in the Middle-Aged Poland

Summary/Abstract: Prince Emeryk — a patron of virginity and one of important saints in the Arpad dynasty, was cherished not only in the territory of the Duchy of Hungary in the Middle Ages. Nowadays it is difficult to say something certain about the origins of his cult in Poland, nevertheless, it should be noticed that the participants of Bolesław Krzywousty’s pilgrimage to the graveyard of St. Stephen in Bialogród could have heard of him a lot. A bit later, as can be assumed, it was prince’s Żywot or Kronika węgiersko-polska including a lot about him that constituted an extremely valuable source of information for the Polish clergy. The tangible evidence of the cult of St. Emeryk comes from the 1380s. At that time cardinal Demetrius gave indulgence privileges to several altars and two chapels of the St. Mary’s Church in Cracow, the Augustian monastery in Cracow-Kazimierz and a chapel of St. Mary in the Tarnów castle. The were to be binding on prince’s day and during the octave. The evidence confirming the existence of the name of Arpadowicz in Poland which is well-known nowadays, comes from the end of this century. The indulgence document from 1445 for one of the altars of St. Mary’s Church in Tarnów includes the day of St. Emeryk. Święty Krzyż, the person of the prince is associated with, thanks to the legend connected with the place, received an altar dedicated to his name. And, here, the monastery received indulgence to be binding on his day too. The popularity of the legend from the Świętokrzyskie region did not translate into a great development of the cult of its hero. He was not meant to play an important role in the Middle-Aged Poland. His reception, however, constituted one of the elements, though certainly a little one, of broad Polish-Hungarian connections. Emeryk himself joined the Polish pantheon of saints for good.

• Details
• Contents