Places of Patronage and Piety – the Cult of the Virgin Mary in late Medieval Hungary
In this interview, Karen Stark discusses her on-going research into the cult of the Virgin Mary in late medieval Hungary. Originally an archaeologist, Karen retains a great interest in material culture and place-making, and she uses this lens to analyse the Marian cult.Following King Stephen I dedicating the Hungarian kingdom to the Virgin, Karen notes how later kings venerated, and promoted the veneration of the Virgin Mary. This public veneration, echoing and linking to King Stephen I, was particularly strong during times of dynastic transition when kingship and the right to rule was liable to be challenged. Karen also notes how the nobility also promoted the cult of the Virgin Mary, potentially in order to gain favour with the king.Karen also discusses the malleability of the image of the Virgin, enabling many different communities to venerate her, for example, royalty, nuns, mothers, newly converted pagans. Finally, Karen considers why understanding the cult of the Virgin is relevant today, citing both on-going veneration to political propaganda.This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.The image of the Virgin for this podcast is from Manfred Koller, “Das Schatzkammerbild in Mariazell. Untersuchung und Konservierung,” in Ungarn in Mariazell, Mariazell in Ungarn: Geschichte und Erinnerung, ed. Péter Farbaky and Szabolcs Serfőző (Budapest: Historisches Museum der Stadt Budapest, 2004), 301.