The history of Christianity in Hungary started in the Roman province of Pannonia, centuries before the arrival of the Magyars, or Hungarians.
Antiquity and Early Middle Ages
Roman Pannonia
Celtic, Illyrian, Iranian and Dacian tribes inhabited the lands now forming Hungary in Classical Antiquity. The Romans forced the tribes of Transdanubiathe western region of present-day Hungaryinto submission between 35BC and 9AD. The region was incorporated in the Roman province of Pannonia. In the 290s, Transdanubia was divided between two new provinces, Pannonia Prima and Valeria.
The natives' religion is poorly documented. The Romans erected shrines to their gods and introduced mystery cults. A Christian presence can certainly be documented from the 2ndcentury. A decorated casket-mount depicting the marriage at Cana and other scenes from the Bible was unearthed at Intercisa (now Dunaújváros). The first Christians were immigrants, particularly from Syria, Italy and Greece. Most of them had Greek names. One of the earliest tombstones with a Christian inscription"Live in God"was erected for Aurelius Iodorus, "a Greek citizen from Laodicea area", and his two children in Savaria (now Szombathely). No Christian churches dated before the 4thcentury have been unearthed, implying that Christian liturgy was celebrated in private homes.
The Diocletianic Persecution did not severely affect the local Christian communities. No martyrs are known, although Bishop Quirinus of Sescia was publicly executed in Savaria in 303. Emperor Constantine the Great's Edict of Milan consolidated the Christians' position in 313. Christian cemeteries, separated from the pagans' necropolises, developed near the towns and the fortresses. One of the largest Roman-era Christian cemeteries outside of Italy was located in Sopianae (present-day Pécs). The use of fibulae decorated with crosses or "Chi Rho"-monograms spread, although they do not necessarily evidence their owners' Christian faith because Christianity was developing into a state religion during this period. None of the towns of Pannonia Prima and Valeria are documented as episcopal sees, but historian András Mócsy proposes that bishoprics must have existed in the provincial capitals, Sopianae (present-day Pécs) and Savaria. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, wrote that Arianisma doctrine condemned as heresy at the First Council of Nicaeaspread in Pannonia Valeria in the 4thcentury.
Barbarian incursions forced significant part of the local Romanized population to flee from Pannonia in the 5thcentury. Christians who fled from Scarbantia (now Sopron) took Bishop Quirinus's relics from Savaria to Rome around 408. Other Christian groups survived in Pannonia. Anthony the Hermit was born in Valeria and he left the province only after his parents' death. Martin, who was to become archbishop of Braga, was also born in Pannonia.
Migration period
The Huns crossed the Volga River from the east and forced large groups of Alans and Goths to abandon their homelands in the Pontic steppes. Hun, Alan and Goth troops pillaged Pannonia for the first time in the winter of 379–380. The Romans allowed the Marcomanni to settle in Pannonia Prima when their queen, Fritigil, converted to Christianity around 396. The Huns' center of power was transferred to the lowlands along the Middle Danube in the 420s, but their empire collapsed after the Germanic and Iranian subject peoples defeated them in the Battle of Nedao in 454. The Gepids took control of the lands to the east of the river Tisza and the Romans allowed the Ostrogoths to settle in Pannonia. In the early 470s, the Ostrogoths left for Italy and less powerful Germanic peoples, like the Heruli and Suebi, seized parts of Pannonia. The Lombards occupied the province in the 500s.
The Gepids' conversion to Christianity started in the second half of the 4thcentury. Archaeological finds proving the survival of Germanic paganism abound, but the aristocrats were buried with reliquiaries, indicating their adherence to the cult of saints. The Gepids adhered to Arianism. The Lombards came into contact with Arian missionaries in the 490s, but their pagan funerary rites survived. They placed food and drink in the graves and buried their warriors with their hunting dogs and weapons. Arianism became their dominant religion in the 560s, preserving their separation from their Catholic subjects. Nicetius, Bishop of Trier, addressed a letter to Chlothsind, the Catholic wife of King Alboin of the Lombards, unsuccessfully urging her to convert her husband to Catholicism in the winter of 565–566.