St Stephan of Hungary: If Only He Were King Today

Today in the book In Caelo et in Terra, we read about an amazing king! St Stephan was king of Hungary starting right around the year 1000. He was a devout Christian and was VERY serious about his faith, and about his kingdom being Christian! He made laws that helped the church grow - including tithing his people to support the church and the poor, and making every tenth town build a church and support a priest. He very strongly urged everyone who wasn't a priest or a nun to get married and have children. He very strongly (maybe a little too strongly, but I'm definitely not one to judge) opposed the paganism of his time and rooted it out. You can read more about him here.

Today we face a crisis of leadership. Most of the world is languishing under bad leaders, including the United States. There are a few good leaders in the world (like the king of Poland!) but for the most part we see rampant corruption and people suffering from lack of strong, wise leadership. Let's pray that God will send us some St Stephans to get us back on track.

God, thanks for the amazing example of this godly king. St Stephan of Hungary, pray for us.