The Old Polish Life of Blessed Helen of Hungary OP (1200–1240)

Piotr Marian Stefaniak

Kraków
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4327-432X

Abstract

The Dominican nun blessed Helen (Ilona) of Veszprém (Hungary), who lived in the first half of the 13th century in Hungary, was one of the first stigmata in the church. As a mystic she represented the Christocentric and passion present. After her death, she was surrounded by a local cult in Hungary, which since the 15th century has radiated thanks to the Dominicans to other countries, including Italy. In the era of the revival of the Church after the Council of Trent, the cult of Helen was revived and also reached Poland. An example of this is her life placed in the work of Hilary Piskorski: Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Order of Ours for the whole year (…), Wilno 1759. It is important because it arose in a geographically very distant place from Veszprém, in Vilnius, and it is the most extensive life written in Polish in the Eighteenth century, which indicates that the figure of Helen was important among other numerous Dominican saints. Life was based on hagiographic broadcasts that have been widespread since the 18th century, primarily on the work of the Provincial of the Hungarian Dominican Province in Vienna in 1687 in the years 1642–1699, Sigmund Ferrarius, De rebus Hungaricae Provinciae Ordinis Praedicatorum. The text published in Vilnius gives little-known episodes about the spiritual figure of the Veszprém Dominican Saint.

Keywords:

mysticism, stigmas, blessed Helen from Hungary, Dominican Nuns, Veszprém, Hungary