Tari Edit: Pest megye középkori templomai (Studia Comitatensia 27. Szentendre, 2000.)
monasteries and bishop churches went on each week according to an order determined in the liturgy. The Council of Szabolcs in 1092 (already mentioned several times) made regulations on obligatory church holidays too. In the rural churches in the first centuries of the Árpádian Age only axioms had been explained (catechism and the Lord's Prayer), as we learn it from the edicts of the Council of Esztergom in 1100. At the same time, among the tasks of the priest we can mention the administration of the sacraments: baptism, marrying, extreme unction. PATRON SAINTS, TITULI IN COMITAT PEST Ecclesiastical buildings were commended to a patron saint (patrónus) or to the glorification of some mystery of faith. The choice of the patron saint was not regulated by obligatory rules. At the first hand it could be determined by the compulsory feast days precisely regulated since the Council of Szabolcs in 1092. 423 Despite of the wide research continued on the topic no certain conclusions can be drawn on the rules, ecclesiastical orders considering the choice of patron saints in the Árpádian Age. Decision could be influenced by the bishop, the founder and may be by the building community. But only the bishop could allow the use of the chosen patron saint. In the course of the analysis of the parishes of the Pata Archdeanery it has been shown that in the choice of the patron saints of the rural churches the decisive role was played not by the ecclesiastical leadership, they only consented it. Favourite patron saints changed in different periods and regions. The relics of the patron saint were kept in the church, sometimes placed into the slab covering the altar. The custom of placing the relic into the altar goes back to the times of the persecution of the Christians, when service was held above the martyr's grave. A relic could originate from any remains of the body, or some objects of the saint. It is very probable that without the co-operation of the church, the founder was not able to get a relic. 424 Although many researches examined saints from several aspects, in the following I am going to show the main results of the patron saints' research. The name of the patron saints of county Pest remained at almost half of the churches. Among 360 ecclesiastical buildings we - on the basis of the records and toponymie data - know the patron saint or titulus of 158 churches (43.88 %). There is a total of 42 different patron saints or mysteries of faith in my database. The reason for the change of the patron saint could be that the church - because of its partial destruction or bad condition - was rebuilt. But it is possible that some profane act has taken place in the church (deconsecration, murder etc.) which made the new consecration necessary. Toponymie data, that is to say the formation of the names of settlements out of the names of the patron saints is characteristic mainly for the period between the 11 th —15 th According to the studies by Béla Kovács and András Mező the choice was made mainly according to the obligatory feast days. Kovács has shown that in the four fifths' part of the analysis of the whole Hungarian material the choice was made from the circle of the obligatory holidays. Kovács 1990. 414., Mező 1996. 38. In the survey of the research I am not dealing with the significant literature considering the research of the saints, I have tried to limit it to the research of the patron saints of the churches. 242
