The Pécsvárad Abbey was a

Benedictine monastery , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

established at

Pécsvárad Pécsvárad (german: Petschwar; hr, Pečvar) is a town in Baranya County, Hungary. Notable landmarks Among the most significant Hungarian heritage from the Middle Ages is the castle built on a Benedictine monastery commissioned by King St Steph ...

in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

in the first decades of the 11th century. Its patrons were the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

and Saint

Benedict of Nursia Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...

Foundation (1015–1038)

The

Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs ( Hungarian: ''Pécsi Egyházmegye'', la, Dioecesis Quinque Ecclesiensis) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in Hungary. The Cathedral of Pécs is dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint P ...

was established in 1009 with jurisdiction in the southern parts of Transdanubia within the Kingdom of Hungary. The historians Gergely Kiss and Gábor Sarbak write that the first Benedictine monks who settled in the diocese "may have lived" in community with the

secular priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogr ...

s of the cathedral in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; hr, Pečuh; german: Fünfkirchen, ; also known by other #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the countr ...

. The monks moved to the nearby Pécsvárad at the foot of the

Zengő Zengő (; hr, Zenka) is the highest mountain in Mecsek Mountains in southern Hungary – its height is 682 metres.Pierre Jolivet, Jorge Santiago-Blay, Michael Schmitt, Research of chrysomelidae, BRILL, 2009 p. 23/ref> The peak is situated in ...

Mountain in 1015. According to

György Györffy György Györffy (26 September 1917 – 19 December 2000) was a Hungarian historian, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, MTA). Biography Györffy was born in Szucság (Suceagu, today part of Baciu, Romania), Hungary the son o ...

, Pécsvárad was the center of a royal domain. The ruins of a two-storey

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

were unearthed at the monastery, but its dating is controversial: it may have been built between 997 and 1038, but an earlier or a later date neither can be excluded. Asztrik ersek Pecsvarad

A diploma of the foundation of the Pécsvárad Abbeywhich was forged in the name of King Saint

Stephen I of Hungary Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent István király ; la, Sanctus Stephanus; sk, Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the f ...

around 1220states that

Astrik Saint Astrik of Pannonhalma (also known as Anastasius, Astericus, Ascrick, Astrissicus) (died c. 1030/1040) is a saint of the 11th century. Life Radla was a Czech or Croat from Bohemia, who was a monk in Hungary. He probably received the habit at ...

, one of Bishop Saint

Adalbert of Prague Adalbert of Prague ( la, Sanctus Adalbertus, cs, svatý Vojtěch, sk, svätý Vojtech, pl, święty Wojciech, hu, Szent Adalbert (Béla); 95623 April 997), known in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia by his birth name Vojtěch ( la, Vo ...

's disciplines, was the monastery's first abbot. Gábor Thoroczkay writes that it was only the memory of Astrik's missionary work in the wider region of Pécsvárad which gave rise to his fame as the founding abbot of the monastery. On the other hand, György Györffy says that King Stephen granted his estates in Pécsvárad to Astrik who was a

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...

at that time. Györffy adds that the monastery was only set up in 1038, which is the year of the monastery's consecration, according to the ''

Annales Posonienses The ''Annales Posonienses'' or Annals of Pressburg ( hu, Pozsonyi Évkönyv) are the only extant early medieval annals written in the Kingdom of Hungary. However, they are rather a collection of notes which, as the historian Carlile Aylmer Macartn ...

''. The Abbey's forged charter of foundationwhich, according to László Koszta, reflects the circumstances around 1220writes that King Saint Stephen donated 42 villages to the monks. The monastery is dedicated to

Saint Benedict Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Christianity in Italy, Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Ortho ...

and the

Flourishing (1038–1410)

A fragment of a Byzantine Madonna, dated to the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, was discovered in the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

of the monastery. The fresco on the walls of the apse was made in the 12th century.

Decline (1410–1543)

References

Sources

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External links

Pécsvárad–Benedictine abbey: Photoes by Zoltán Bagyinszki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pecsvarad Abbey Benedictine monasteries in Hungary