Published: 2025-01-11

The Dominican Nuns’ Monastery on Rabbit Island in Buda (1252–1637) as an Example of the Monarch’s Paternal Foundation (1)

Piotr Marian Stefaniak
Studia Teologiczno-Historyczne Śląska Opolskiego
Section: Articles
DOI https://doi.org/10.25167/sth.5433

Abstract

In the face of the Tatar invasion of Hungary in 1241–1242, King Béla IV made an oath that he would put his daughter into the service of God after rejoicing that the country had not been destroyed. After a year of occupation, the Tatars withdrew from Hungary. In this situation, the king gave his three-and-ahalf-year-old daughter, Margaret, to the Dominican nuns’ monastery in Veszprém in 1245. As early as 1243, the construction of a monastery for nuns on Rabbit Island on the Danube near Buda began. It was supposed to be a monastery where Margaret would live. In 1252, the
princess and 18 nuns moved into the monastery under construction. On July 25, 1255, Béla IV issued the founding act of the monastery, which was being built up until 1259. Pope Alexander IV on March 5, 1257, accepted the monastery under the protection of the Holy See, and later that year the general chapter of the Order of Preachers incorporated the nuns into their order. Therefore, the most outstanding monastery complex in Hungary was created in
the 13th century. The monastery had an aristocratic character. Four daughters of rulers lived there, daughters of knights and nobles. In the Gothic era, the monastery complex was rebuilt in the years 1381–1409, becoming an architectural pearl on a European scale. The Gothic, soaring monastery was built in white marble by French architects. It was also an important sanctuary, a place of pilgrimage to the grave of Saint Margaret of Hungary. The nuns were famous for their high spiritual and intellectual level. There was a scriptorium here. We know of three nuns who were scribes nuns who worked here in the 15th century: Lea Ráskai, Marta Sövényházi and Soror Katerina. The prosperity of the monastery was ruined by the Turkish invasion of Hungary. In 1541, 18 nuns fled from Rabbit Island to Oradea. They lived there until 1546, when they had
to leave due to the Reformation. They went to Trnava, where in 1567 they received the monastery of St. John the Baptist. From there, in 1618, they moved to the Poor Clares monastery in Pressburg. There, in 1637, the last Dominican nun, Barbara Verebély, died, closing the history of the most famous Hungarian monastery.

Keywords:

St. Margareth of Hungary, dominican nuns, Béla IV, Rabbit (Margaret) Island, Buda(pest)

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Citation rules

Stefaniak, P. M. (2025). The Dominican Nuns’ Monastery on Rabbit Island in Buda (1252–1637) as an Example of the Monarch’s Paternal Foundation (1). Studia Teologiczno-Historyczne Śląska Opolskiego, 44(2), 131–153. https://doi.org/10.25167/sth.5433

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