EN
The Hungarians are supposed to fi rst have come into contact with Christianity back on the steppes of the Black Sea and then in the Carpathian Basin. Among potential centres, seeding the new faith among them, are local Christians. However, these were fi rst the Byzantine Empire, which sent a mission of Hierotheos, a bishop, and later the Western Empire, which patronised Church missions in the second half of the tenth century, that played the leading role in Hungarian Christianity. Eventually, the ruling Árpád dynasty were baptised in the Roman Rite. The actual builder of the Hungarian Church was St. Stephen, who was canonised less than fi fty years after his death. This shows the specifi city of Hungarian Christianity: a developed cult of saint rulers. Another distinguishing feature of this Central-Eastern European country was the existence of two metropolises: in Esztergom and Kalocsa. This was perhaps due to a wish to honour Astrik, who received the pallium as bishop of Kalocsa, replacing Sebastian, the Archbishop of Esztergom. At the end of the article, I compare the development of Christianity in Hungary and Poland until the end of the thirteenth century.