Bakonybél Abbey
# Bakonybél Abbey

The Bakonybél Abbey is a Benedictine monastery established at Bakonybél in the Kingdom of Hungary in the first decades of the 11th century. Its patron is Saint Maurice.

## Foundation (c. 1018–1038)

The establishment of the monastery is connected to the activities of a Thuringian nobleman, Gunther. He entered the Niederaltaich Abbey in order to do penance for his earlier sins, but later became a hermit in the woodlands along the borders between Bavaria and Bohemia. He was related to Gisela of Bavaria, the queen of King Stephen I of Hungary, and often visited them in Hungary. Gunther even lived as hermit in the forests of the Bakony Hills near a royal manor at Veszprém around 1018. Upon his initiative, another saintly man, the Venetian Gerard – who was appointed to educate King Stephen's son, Emeric – built a chapel at the foot of a nearby hill where he spent seven years of his life as a hermit. Gunther persuaded, in 1037, King Stephen to erect a new chapel dedicated to Saint Maurice, transform his royal manor into a monastery and grant his nearby estates to it.

