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Christianization of the Slavs

{{Short description|Aspect of European history}}

{{more footnotes|date=June 2020}}

File:Pan-Slavic postcard "Dědictví otců, zachovej nám, Pane".jpg postcard depicting Saints Cyril and Methodius, the "Apostles to the Slavs"]]

The Slavs were Christianized in waves from the 7th to 12th century, though the process of replacing old Slavic religious practices began as early as the 6th century.{{Cite journal|last=Białous|first=Mirosław|date=2016-12-01|title=Religion of the Proto-Slavs|url=https://doaj.org/article/fd6ec9ec1b424475bb7f8643ccfae905|journal=Elpis|language=en|issue=18|doi=10.15290/elpis.2016.18.20 |issn=1508-7719|doi-access=free}} Generally speaking, the monarchs of the South Slavs adopted Christianity in the 9th century, the East Slavs in the 10th, and the West Slavs between the 9th and 12th century. Saints Cyril and Methodius ({{floruit}} 860–885) are attributed as "Apostles to the Slavs", having introduced the Byzantine-Slavic rite (Old Slavonic liturgy) and Glagolitic alphabet, the oldest known Slavic alphabet and basis for the Early Cyrillic alphabet.{{Cite web |title=Dictionary.com {{!}} Meanings & Definitions of English Words |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/glagolitic |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}}

The simultaneous missionary efforts to convert the Slavs by what would later become known as the Catholic Church of Rome and the Eastern Orthodox Church of Constantinople led to a 'second point of contention between Rome and Constantinople', especially in Bulgaria (9th–10th century). This was one of many events that preceded the East–West Schism of 1054 and led to the eventual split between the Greek East and Latin West.{{Cite journal |last1=Alexakis |first1=Alexander |date=2010 |title=Reviewed Work: Greek East and Latin West: The Church, AD 681–1071. (The Church in History, 3.) by Andrew Louth |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27866892 |journal=Speculum |publisher= |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=425–427 |doi= |access-date=17 June 2022}} The Slavs thus became divided between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Closely connected to the competing missionary efforts of the Roman Church and the Byzantine Church was the spread of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts in Eastern Europe.{{Cite book |last=Adamska |first=Anna |date=2016 |title=Medieval East Central Europe in a Comparative Perspective: From Frontier Zones to Lands in Focus |chapter=13. Intersections. Medieval East Central Europe from the perspective of literacy and communication |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9EmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA226 |location=Abingdon |publisher=Routledge |page=226–229 |isbn=9781317212256 |access-date=26 August 2021}} The majority of Orthodox Slavs adopted Cyrillic, while most Catholic Slavs adopted the Latin, but there were many exceptions to this general rule. In areas where both Churches were proselytising to pagan Europeans, such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Croatian Duchy and the Principality of Serbia, mixtures of languages, scripts and alphabets emerged, and the lines between Latin Catholic (Latinitas) and Cyrillic Orthodox literacy (Slavia Orthodoxa) were blurred.{{efn|Other places where Catholic and Orthodox missionary work converged were Great Moravia, the Grand Principality of Hungary, and the Finnic lands.}}

Examples

File:Seal of Strojimir.gif of Serbia, from the late 9th century - one of the oldest artifacts on the Christianization of the Slavs]]

See also

Annotations

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References

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Sources

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  • {{Cite book|editor-last=Berend|editor-first=Nora|title=Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' c. 900–1200|date=2007|location=Cambridge and New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139468367|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UmFrVUb5DSwC}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Betti|first=Maddalena|title=The Making of Christian Moravia (858-882): Papal Power and Political Reality|year=2013|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004260085|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdLYAQAAQBAJ}}
  • {{cite book|author=Augustine Casiday|title=The Orthodox Christian World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IcDeFiZgxK0C|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-31484-1}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Curta|first=Florin|author-link=Florin Curta|title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250|year=2006|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521815390|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Curta|first=Florin|author-link=Florin Curta|title=Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300)|year=2019|location=Leiden and Boston|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004395190|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sqiDwAAQBAJ}}
  • {{cite book|author1=Thomas John Drobena|author2=Wilma Samuella Kucharek|title=Heritage of the Slavs: The Christianization of the Slavs and the Great Moravian Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSYaAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Kosovo Publishing Company}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Dvornik|first=Francis|author-link=Francis Dvornik|title=The Slavs in European History and Civilization|year=1962|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=9780813507996|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LACpYP-g1y8C}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Fine|first=John Van Antwerp Jr.|author-link=John Van Antwerp Fine Jr.|title=The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century|date=1991|orig-year=1983|location=Ann Arbor, Michigan|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0472081497|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C}}
  • {{cite book|author1=B. Gasparov|author2=Olga Raevsky-Hughes|title=Christianity and the Eastern Slavs: Slavic cultures in the Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k7Z6d0ifWfEC|year=1995|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07945-8}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Komatina|first=Predrag|chapter=The Church in Serbia at the Time of Cyrilo-Methodian Mission in Moravia|title=Cyril and Methodius: Byzantium and the World of the Slavs |year=2015|location=Thessaloniki|publisher=Dimos|pages=711–718|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/13442372}}
  • {{Cite book|editor-last=Moravcsik|editor-first=Gyula|editor-link=Gyula Moravcsik|title=Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio|year=1967|orig-year=1949|edition=2nd revised|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies|isbn=9780884020219|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3al15wpFWiMC}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Špehar|first=Perica N.|chapter=By Their Fruit you will recognize them - Christianization of Serbia in Middle Ages|title=Tak więc po owocach poznacie ich|year=2010|location=Poznań|publisher=Stowarzyszenie naukowe archeologów Polskich|pages=203–220|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/1333518}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Špehar|first=Perica N.|chapter=Remarks to Christianisation and Realms in the Central Balkans in the Light of Archaeological Finds (7th-11th c.)|title=Castellum, Civitas, Urbs: Centres and Elites in Early Medieval East-Central Europe|year=2015|location=Budapest|publisher=Verlag Marie Leidorf|pages=71–93|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11529436}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Vlasto|first=Alexis P.|author-link=Alexis P. Vlasto|title=The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs|year=1970|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521074599|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpVOAAAAIAAJ}}
  • {{Cite journal|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|title=The Golden Seal of Stroimir|journal=Historical Review|year=2007|volume=55|pages=23–29|publisher=The Institute for History|location=Belgrade|url=http://www.iib.ac.rs/docs/IstorijskiCasopis55%282007%29.pdf|access-date=2018-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324160341/http://www.iib.ac.rs/docs/IstorijskiCasopis55(2007).pdf|archive-date=2018-03-24|url-status=dead}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|year=2008|title=Forging unity: The South Slavs between East and West 550-1150|location=Belgrade|publisher=The Institute of History, Čigoja štampa|isbn=9788675585732|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|title=De conversione Croatorum et Serborum: A Lost Source|year=2012|location=Belgrade|publisher=The Institute of History|url=https://www.academia.edu/1231887}}
  • {{Cite journal|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|title=On the Baptism of the Serbs and Croats in the Time of Basil I (867–886)|journal=Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana|year=2013|issue=1|pages=33–53|url=http://slavica-petropolitana.spbu.ru/files/2013_1/Zivkovic.pdf}}
  • {{Cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|title=Forging unity: The South Slavs between East and West 550-1150|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ|year=2008|location=Belgrade|publisher=The Institute of History, Čigoja štampa|isbn=9788675585732}}

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Category:Eastern Orthodox Christian culture

Slavs

Category:Slavic history

Category:Slavic culture