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The Most Famous

RELIGIOUS FIGURES from Hungary

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This page contains a list of the greatest Hungarian Religious Figures. The pantheon dataset contains 2,238 Religious Figures, 17 of which were born in Hungary. This makes Hungary the birth place of the 30th most number of Religious Figures behind Czechia and Netherlands.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Hungarian Religious Figures of all time. This list of famous Hungarian Religious Figures is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Hungarian Religious Figures.

Photo of Martin of Tours

1. Martin of Tours (316 - 397)

With an HPI of 81.20, Martin of Tours is the most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 72 different languages on wikipedia.

Martin of Tours (Latin: Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the patron saint of the Third Republic, and is patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe. A native of Pannonia (in present-day Hungary), he converted to Christianity at a young age. He served in the Roman cavalry in Gaul, but left military service at some point prior to 361, when he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, establishing the monastery at Ligugé. He was consecrated as Bishop of Caesarodunum (Tours) in 371. As bishop, he was active in the suppression of the remnants of Gallo-Roman religion, but he opposed the violent persecution of the Priscillianist sect of ascetics. His life was recorded by a contemporary hagiographer, Sulpicius Severus. Some of the accounts of his travels may have been interpolated into his vita to validate early sites of his cult. He is best known for the account of his using his sword to cut his cloak in two, to give half to a beggar clad only in rags in the depth of winter. His shrine in Tours became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. His cult was revived in French nationalism during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1, and as a consequence he was seen as a patron saint of France during the French Third Republic.

Photo of Kinga of Poland

2. Kinga of Poland (1224 - 1292)

With an HPI of 61.91, Kinga of Poland is the 2nd most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Kinga of Poland or Kinga of Hungary, also Saint Kinga (also known as Cunegunda; Polish: Święta Kinga, Hungarian: Szent Kinga) (5 March 1224– 24 July 1292) is a saint in the Catholic Church and patroness of Poland and Lithuania.

Photo of Saint Margaret of Scotland

3. Saint Margaret of Scotland (1045 - 1093)

With an HPI of 61.38, Saint Margaret of Scotland is the 3rd most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Saint Margaret of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Naomh Maighréad; Scots: Saunt Marget, c. 1045 – 16 November 1093), also known as Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess and a Scottish queen. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". Born in the Kingdom of Hungary to the expatriate English prince Edward the Exile, Margaret and her family returned to England in 1057. Following the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, her brother Edgar Ætheling was elected as King of England but never crowned. After she and her family fled north, Margaret married Malcolm III of Scotland by the end of 1070. Margaret was a very pious Christian, and among many charitable works she established a ferry across the Firth of Forth in Scotland for pilgrims travelling to St Andrews in Fife, which gave the towns of South Queensferry and North Queensferry their names. Margaret was the mother of three kings of Scotland, or four, if Edmund of Scotland (who ruled with his uncle, Donald III) is counted, and of Matilda of Scotland, queen consort of England. According to the Vita S. Margaritae (Scotorum) Reginae (Life of St. Margaret, Queen (of the Scots)), attributed to Turgot of Durham, Margaret died at Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1093, merely days after receiving the news of her husband and son's deaths in battle. In 1250, Pope Innocent IV canonised her, and her remains were reinterred in a shrine in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland. Her relics were dispersed after the Scottish Reformation and subsequently lost. Mary, Queen of Scots, at one time owned her head, which was subsequently preserved by Jesuits in the Scots College, Douai, France, from where it was lost during the French Revolution.

Photo of József Mindszenty

4. József Mindszenty (1892 - 1975)

With an HPI of 61.35, József Mindszenty is the 4th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

József Mindszenty (Hungarian pronunciation: [jo:ʒɛf mindsɛnti]; 29 March 1892 – 6 May 1975) was a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Esztergom and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, for five decades "he personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary". During World War II, he was imprisoned by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party. After the war, he opposed communism and communist persecution in his country. As a result, he was tortured and given a life sentence in a 1949 show trial that generated worldwide condemnation, including a United Nations resolution. After eight years in prison, Mindszenty was freed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and granted political asylum by the United States embassy in Budapest. He lived there for the next fifteen years. He was finally allowed to leave the country in 1971, and died in exile in 1975 in Vienna, Austria.

Photo of Saint Emeric of Hungary

5. Saint Emeric of Hungary (1000 - 1031)

With an HPI of 60.24, Saint Emeric of Hungary is the 5th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Emeric (Hungarian: Szent Imre herceg), also Emericus, Emerick, Emery, Emory, and venerated as Saint Emeric (c. 1007 – 2 September 1031) was the son of King Stephen I of Hungary and Giselle of Bavaria.

Photo of Yolanda of Poland

6. Yolanda of Poland (1235 - 1298)

With an HPI of 58.35, Yolanda of Poland is the 6th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Yolanda of Poland or Yolanda of Hungary, also Blessed Yolanda (Jolanta in Polish; Jolán in Hungarian; also known as Helen; 1235 – 11 June 1298) was the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. She was the sister of Margaret of Hungary and Kinga of Poland (Cunegunda). One of her paternal aunts was the Franciscan Elizabeth of Hungary.

Photo of Nicolaus Olahus

7. Nicolaus Olahus (1493 - 1568)

With an HPI of 53.31, Nicolaus Olahus is the 7th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Nicolaus Olahus (Latin for Nicholas, the Vlach; Hungarian: Oláh Miklós; Romanian: Nicolae Valahul); 10 January 1493 – 15 January 1568) was the Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary, and a distinguished Catholic prelate, humanist and historiographer.

Photo of Sára Salkaházi

8. Sára Salkaházi (1899 - 1944)

With an HPI of 51.87, Sára Salkaházi is the 8th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Sára Salkaházi, SSS (born Sarolta Klotild Schalkház; 11 May 1899 – 27 December 1944) was a Hungarian Catholic religious sister who saved the lives of approximately one hundred Jews during World War II. Denounced and summarily executed by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, Salkaházi was beatified in 2006.

Photo of Vilmos Zsigmond

9. Vilmos Zsigmond (1930 - 2016)

With an HPI of 51.75, Vilmos Zsigmond is the 9th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Vilmos Zsigmond ASC (Hungarian: [ˈvilmoʃ ˈʒiɡmond]; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work in cinematography helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wave movement.Over his career he became associated with many leading American directors, such as Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Michael Cimino and Woody Allen. He is best known for his work on the films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter.He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for The Deer Hunter. He also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Special for the HBO miniseries Stalin.His work on the films McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter made the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) list of the top 50 best-shot films from 1950–97. The ASC also awarded him with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.In 2003, Zsigmond was voted as one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history by the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.

Photo of Péter Erdő

10. Péter Erdő (1952 - )

With an HPI of 51.29, Péter Erdő is the 10th most famous Hungarian Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Péter Erdő (Hungarian: Erdő Péter, pronounced [ˈɛrdøː ˈpeːtɛr]; born 25 June 1952) is a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who has served as the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary since 2003. He was president of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe from 2006 to 2016 and was the relator general for the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Erdő is reputed to have a special Marian devotion to Our Lady of Consolation. He is fluent in English, Italian, French, Latin and his native Hungarian. He also addressed the faithful in fluent Slovak language in the past.

Pantheon has 17 people classified as religious figures born between 316 and 1963. Of these 17, 2 (11.76%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living religious figures include Péter Erdő and Péter Fülöp Kocsis. The most famous deceased religious figures include Martin of Tours, Kinga of Poland, and Saint Margaret of Scotland. As of April 2022, 3 new religious figures have been added to Pantheon including Lajos Haynald, Kolos Ferenc Vaszary, and Péter Fülöp Kocsis.

Living Religious Figures

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Deceased Religious Figures

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Newly Added Religious Figures (2022)

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Which Religious Figures were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 9 most globally memorable Religious Figures since 1700.