471 Carmen Florea Relics at the Margins of Latin Christendom: the Cult of a Frontier Saint in the Late Middle Ages In the year 1192, at Oradea (Nagyvárad)* in the presence of the king of Hungary, Béla III and Church representatives, the body of Ladislaus, king of Hungary (10771095) was elevated from his tomb, placed into another coffin, whilst his head was put into a special reliquary 1 . These ceremonies took place a century after Ladislaus’s death, in the kingdom of Hungary, that territory covering the eastern margins of Latin Christendom. Ac cording to the saint’s legend, the carriage in which Ladislaus’s body lied, miraculously took the way to Oradea, the place where the king has founded a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary 2 . This episode is of highly importance for the purpose of my investigation, since the first aim of my analysis is to decipher how the cult of this new saint developed in the very center where it would be diffusing from. Then, I will extend my attention to the neighboring territories, in the eastern part of the kingdom, namely Transylvania (fig. VII/1). Medieval Transylvania offers a unique pic ture in regard with the various ethnic and religious groups inhabiting there: the Hunga * At the first mention of a place name its contemporary Romanian name is given, in brackets being mentio ned its Hungarian and/or German corresponding name. 1 Vincze BUNYITAY, A váradi püspökség története alapításától a jelenkorig, vol. I, Nagyvárad, 1883, pp. 824. 2 … currus in quo positum erat corpus eius, sine subvectione cuiuslibet animalis, recto itinere Waradinum ultro ferebatur. Vigilantes autem et currum non invenientes contristati valde ceperunt per loca discurrere, inveneruntque currum versus Waradinum ultro currentem, et sanctum corpus in eo positum. Videntes itaque miraculum, quod videlicet corpus beati confessoris ad locum, ubi sepulturam ipse sibimet elegerat,divinitus portaretur ei ‘qui mirabilis est in sanctis suis’ gratias agentes, iter suum sine omni hesitatione versus Waradinum reduxerunt. Emma BARTONIEK (ed.), Legenda S. Ladislai Regis in Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum tempore ducum regumque stripis Arpadianae gestarum, (henceforth SRH), vol. II, Budapest, 1938, p. 523.