St. Ladislaus of Hungary

Ladislaus is one of the great kingly saints, but his life is not a royal success story alone. Hungary had already received its monarchy and church organization from St. Stephen, yet it owed almost as much to Ladislaus for its strengthening and expansion. After a youth overshadowed by dynastic violence and political confusion, he came to the throne in 1077 with his rights still disputed by Solomon. The old portrait of him as the ideal Christian knight holds: physically imposing, fearless, courteous, deeply pious, and without personal ambition. Power was accepted as duty rather than as a prize. His holiness showed not only in private morals and disciplined religion, but also in the way he governed a difficult kingdom. He kept enemies at bay, beat back repeated invasions, worked to civilize rougher tribes, and still left room in the realm for Jews and Mohammedans to live with legal and religious liberty.

His close alliance with the reforming papal cause against Emperor Henry IV, his support for Rupert of Swabia, and his marriage into that political camp all marked his public life. Within Hungary he governed firmly in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, and it was at his solicitation that St. Stephen, St. Emeric, and St. Gerard were recognized by Rome as saints worthy of veneration. The later part of his life widened into Croatia and Dalmatia, where he intervened after the murder of his sister's husband, restored order as he could, and established the see of Zagreb. Other powers protested, yet even Urban II looked to Ladislaus as the kind of ruler whose help would matter greatly in the First Crusade. He died in 1095 before that expedition began. The result is a portrait of a ruler who fought, negotiated, legislated, and prayed, but whose sanctity rested above all on the disciplined and Christian use of authority.