John of Hungary

John of Hungary, inquisitor and martyr

(† 1230)

We don't know much about him. All you can read in the Annèe dominicaine is that he was a bishop whom Pope Gregory IX sent to the "wild countries" where he was stoned to death. Some hagiographical accounts do not mention that he had episcopal dignity. In the Dominican tradition, we can find much convolutedness that only complicate learning about the life of this Dominican. For example, Spanish Dominican Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591) reports that Br. John of Hungary was an inquisitor in Toulouse, and it was there that he was sentenced to death along with five fellow monks; making him the leader of a group of six martyrs. They seem to be the ones the Polish historian and hagiographer Michal Siejkowski had in mind when he included them in his Dni roczne under January 30. It is also worth noting that two Johns appear among them. In some works on Dominican saints, blesseds and martyrs, you can find several different figures under the name John of Hungary. Thus, for example, Stephanus de Sampayo mentions as many as three Johns of Hungary: the first died in 1230 and was skinned while still alive; the second, of whom he explicitly states that he was an inquisitor of Toulouse, was killed by stoning along with six of his confreres in 1271; and finally the third, also an inquisitor in Toulouse, who was sliced around 1270.