St Gerard Sagredo  Bishop Martyr ( - 1046)  Saint of the day

September 24 

St Gerard was Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. On a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, when passfng through Hungary, he was detained by King St Stephen and persuaded to work for the conversion of the Magyars and to be the tutor of his son, Prince St Emeric. In 1035 Gerard, who was known in Hungary as “Collert”, became the first Bishop of Csanad, Hungary. He administered his See with great zeal and his flock owed their great devotion to the Blessed Virgin to his apostolic efforts. However, with the death of King St Stephen in 1037, a reaction to Christianity set in. In 1046, Gerard, the staunch Christian that he was, and many of his followers were either lanced or stoned to death at Buda. St Gerard, whose body was thrown into the Danube, is revered as the Apostle of Hungary.