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The Church is universal, but its expression is always affectedโfor good or illโby local culture. There are no โgenericโ Christians; there are Mexican Christians, Polish Christians, Filipino Christians. This fact is evident in the life of Stephen, national hero and spiritual patron of Hungary.
Born a pagan, he was baptized around the age of 10, together with his father, chief of the Magyars, a group who migrated to the Danube area in the ninth century. At 20, he married Gisela, sister to the future emperor, Saint Henry. When he succeeded his father, Stephen adopted a policy of Christianization of the country for both political and religious reasons. He suppressed a series of revolts by pagan nobles and welded the Magyars into a strong national group. He asked the pope to provide for the Churchโs organization in Hungaryโand also requested that the pope confer the title of king upon him. He was crowned on Christmas day in 1001.
Stephen established a system of tithes to support churches and pastors and to relieve the poor. Out of every 10 towns one had to build a church and support a priest. He abolished pagan customs with a certain amount of violence, and commanded all to marry, except clergy and religious. He was easily accessible to all, especially the poor.
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๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐บ ๐๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐บ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐๐ฉ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ, ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ถ๐ด ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐บ ๐๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ช๐ต, ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ, ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ.
