Melega Miklós (szerk.): Remembering St Martin in his birth place (Szombathely, 2016)
Sark) modem sources S zombathelye relationship to St martin was shaped primarily by Kino; Ferdinand ll’s errant. On 16th November 1652, on the fifth day of 'St martin's eigjht’ as they put it at the time, his greatest enemy, King! Gustav II Adolf of Sweden died in the battle of Lützen, which proved to be a turning! point in the Thirty Years’ War. To commemorate the event, King! Ferdinand issued a Royal Charter of Privileges on 25th April 1636, exempting! the town from paying royal taxes." In return, however, he ordered that the town had to qive the St martin Parish a fund of 40 forints annually, out of which 5 forints were to be spend on alms, another 5 forints on holy masses and 30 forints were to be spent on the renovation of the church.3 It was probably on the intercession of archbishop pAzmÁNY Péter, which earned the town this privilege (it is known that a few years before arranged a papal permission for the town to have pil^rima^e rights4). It seems highly likely that he suggested the drafting; of the granting deed to the King! himself. The town’s magistrates always met the requirements of the grant deeds in full.5 &ven when the church was deprived of its rank as the town’s parish church by the bishop of Győr and was later handed over to the Dominicans, St martin’s veneration did not dwindle in the least, on the contrary, it flourished even more.0 The Dominicans were keen to embrace St martin’s cult, and their superiors in Rome fully supported them in this. The information that St martin was born in Sabaria went so much down as common knowledgje that the g!ood people of Szombathely kept referring! To this whenever they requested something!, be it exemption from one tax or another, protection ag!ainst the excesses of their squire’s officers or against the ravages of Prince Rákóczi’s Kuruc forces, using! the fact as a mandatory justification.5 Literature and notes 1 'When (Ringt Ferdinand IIovercame and killed his enemy. King! Ciustav of Sweden in battle on the fifth day of martin's eigfht, the Confessor’s Day, he granted exemption from taxes to the market town of Sabaria, birth town of the Saint to honour him.' 2 Stephanus Schönvisnen Anticfuitatum et historiae Sabariensis ab origine ._. Pestini, 1791.31S-320. p. ° Ша^уаг Nemzeti Levéltár Vas ITlegiyei Levéltára (hereinafter: ПЖ VatTlO Szombathely város levéltára. Ada miscellanea (hereinafter SZVL АС) Fase V. No. 42 4 Hanuy Ferenc PAzmÁNY Péter bíbornok, ■ esztergomi érsek magfyarországi herceg- prímása összegyűjtött levelei. Petri Cardinalis Pázmány;, epistolae collectae. 2. köt. Budapest. 1911. 302. p. \ 5 ITINL VatTIL A Szombathelyi Domonkos Rendház iratai. Rendi iratok (hereinafter: SZDR Rir.) No 20 é ÓM VatTIL SZDR Rir. No 37 7 ПМ VatTIL SZVL AC Fase FF. No 7 5 tTINL VatTIL SZVL AC Fase Y. No 39,98 12 Remembering St martin in his birth placc
