event
Feast of Saint Stephen of Hungary
St. Stephen's Day
also: István napja, August 20
The national feast of Hungary (20 August) commemorating Saint Stephen I, founder of the Hungarian state c. 1000 AD. In The Civilizer, Stroom's abolition of this feast and substitution of Saint Sophia's Day is the play's most symbolically charged act of cultural erasure.
Reading notes
- The Civilizer §22 St. Stephen's day
The feast of Saint Stephen of Hungary (István), 20 August, commemorating the first Christian king of Hungary (c. 975–1038), who founded the Hungarian state and its constitution. Abolishing this feast is Stroom's most symbolically loaded act.
- Queen Mary §3.4 St. Stephen's banner
The banner of Saint Stephen (István), patron saint of Hungary and founder of the kingdom (c. 1000 AD), was a sacred relic carried at coronations. Its falling apart at Charles's coronation was read as a fatal omen — a motif Madách uses to underline the illegitimacy of the usurpation.