Gerard or Gerard Sagredo (Hungarian: Gellért; Italian: Gerardo di Sagredo; Latin: Gerardus; 23 April 977/1000 – 29 August 1046) was the first bishop of Csanád in the Kingdom of Hungary from around 1030 to his death. Most information about his life was preserved in his legends which contain most conventional elements of medieval biographies of saints. He was born in a Venetian noble family, associated with the Sagredos or Morosinis in sources written centuries later. After a serious illness, he was sent to the Benedictine San Giorgio Monastery at the age of five. He received excellent monastic education and also learnt grammar, music, philosophy and law.
He left Venice for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1020, but a storm compelled him to break his journey near Istria. He decided to visit the Kingdom of Hungary. Maurus, bishop of Pécs, and Stephen I of Hungary convinced him not to continue his pilgrimage, emphasizing that Gerard's preachings could accelerate the conversion of the Hungarians. Gerard was made the tutor of the king's son and heir, Emeric. Before long, Gerard went to the Bakony Hills to live as a hermit near Bakonybél. Stephen I made him bishop of the newly established Diocese of Csanád (encompassing present-day Banat in Serbia, Romania and Hungary) around 1030. Benedictine monks who could speak Hungarian helped him to preach among the local inhabitants.
Most information of Gerard was not preserved in impartial sources, but in his hagiographies.[1] The Short Life of Saint Gerard, which was composed around 1100, is an abridgement of an earlier biography.[2][3] The earlier biography did not survive.[4] The Short Life primarily presents Gerard as a bishop.[1] The majority of scholars regard the Short Life the most reliable source of Gerard's life.[3]
The Long Life of Saint Gerard is a compilation of multiple sources, including the biography that the author of the shorter legend had also utilized.[5][6] The Long Life was completed in the late 13th century or in the 14th century.[5][6] It was regarded as a source of absolute reliability for centuries, but this view radically changed in the 20th century.[3] György Györffy even stated that the Long Life was a forgery.[3] Historian Gábor Klaniczay also emphasizes that the longer legend contains obviously anachronistic elements.[7] On the other hand, Carlile Aylmer Macartney says that the Long Life preserved the original form of Gerard's earliest (now lost) biography.[8]
Gerard's own work, the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum also contain references to his life.[3] Simon of Kéza's chronicle and the Illuminated Chronicle preserved fragments from the common source of Gerard's two Lives.[9] A 13th-century rhymed version (or chant) of Gerard's legend was also preserved, but it does not contain more information than the Short Life.[3]
Family and youth
Gerard's Long Life dedicates two chapters to his family and childhood.[10][5] Conventional elements of medieval hagiographies abound in both chapters, suggesting that the author borrowed many motives from other legends, especially from the Life of Saint Adalbert of Prague.[5] Gerard was born in Venice in a noble family.[10] The noble origin of saintly hermits was often emphasized in their legends.[10]
The identification of Gerard's family is uncertain.[10] An expanded version of Petrus de Natalibus's Catalogue of Saints, which was published in 1516, identified Gerard as a member of the Sagredo family.[11] Although the family was granted Venetian nobility only in the 14th century, some scholars (including Fabio Banfi) accept the Sagredos' claim to their kinship with Saint Gerard.[11] Historian László Szegfű says that Gerard was actually a Morosini.[12]
Gerard's father, who was also named Gerard, and mother, Catherine, had awaited his birth for three years.[10] They baptised their son George because he was born on the feast of Saint George (23 April).[10][13] The year of his birth is unknown, but he was born between around 977 and 1000.[10][13][12] He was renamed in the memory of his father who died during a pilgrimage or journey (anachronistically mentioned in Gerard's Long Life as a crusade).[14]
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