Alexandriai Szent Katalin szereplehetőségei a Debreceni, Érdy- és Érsekújvári kódex legendáiban
The Many Roles of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Legends of the Debreceni Codex, Érdy Codex and Érsekújvári Codex

Summary/Abstract: Pelbartus de Themeswar wrote four Latin sermons on the feast of Saint Katherine of Alexandria, the first sermon also containing the legend of the saint. To a greater or lesser extent, these texts served as a source for the three Hungarian legends of Katherine in the Hungarian codex literature. According to the stories of virgin martyrs, a beautiful and clever virgin of noble descent defends her faith against a man in a position of power who wants to possess her ideologically and sexually – this conflict is at the core of the legend. Starting from this main conflict, I examine Katherine’s role in these three very similar legends, that is, how much she prevails as a woman, as a scholar, as a ruler, and as a Christian, how much these roles become predominant in the three texts as a result of minor changes to the source.

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