This has been a sacred place for us Hungarians for more than a thousand years. Both Prince Géza, who selected the location for the monks to settle in 996, and King Saint Stephen were convinced that the great bishop of Tours, Saint Martin was born near "Mons Sacer" or "Sacred Mountain". The monks wished to live the Gospel of Christ through a sprirituality of "ora and labora"—"prayer and labour", thus serving the Hungarian people with their way of life. The foundation of the monastery was instrumental in the development of the Christian culture in medieval Hungary. It is a "world heritage", indeed, which opens a window onto the reality of God as well as onto the values of universal human culture.
