{"id":1503,"date":"2017-11-03T23:09:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T20:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=1503"},"modified":"2017-11-03T23:09:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T20:09:37","slug":"schmemann-the-first-christianization-of-the-slavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/1503\/schmemann-the-first-christianization-of-the-slavs\/","title":{"rendered":"Schmemann, The first Christianization of the Slavs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a>
\n—
\nAt the end of the seventh century came a new invasion from a Turkic people, the Bulgars, who asserted their authority in provinces settled by Slavs and began a struggle against the empire that lasted many years. As occurred later with the Varangian conquerors of the eastern Slavs, they themselves became Slavicized. Almost at the very gates of the capital, a mighty Bulgar-Slavic state was gradually formed by a nearly uninterrupted war that lasted throughout the whole eighth \u2014 or \u201ciconoclastic\u201d \u2014 century.<\/p>\n

We do not know how this new and threatening Slavic problem would have been solved for Byzantium if a development had not taken place in the second half of the ninth century that marks the real beginning of the Slavic chapter in the history of Orthodoxy: the \u201ctranslation\u201d of Christianity into Slavic by two brothers who became Byzantine saints: Constantine (who later received the monastic name of Cyril) and Methodius.<\/p>\n

There is an immense literature on the first teachers of the Slavs. Historical research on their activity is complicated by confessional hostility. Which holds the honor of first encouraging Slavic Christianity \u2014 Constantinople or Rome? There are disputes on these matters, but the answers are unimportant by comparison with the immense significance of the heritage of Cyril and Methodius in the destiny of the Eastern Church.<\/p>\n

They belonged to the intellectual elite of Byzantium, which was grouped around Patriarch Photius in Constantinople in the second half of the ninth century. Constantine was a philosopher, scholar, and linguist, and important missions to the Arabs and Khazars, who lived in southern Russia on the near side of the Dnieper, had been entrusted to him. Natives of Thessalonica, a city with a large Slavic population, the brothers had in all probability known the local Slavic dialect from childhood.<\/p>\n

In 862 the Slavic Prince Rostislav of Moravia sent a request to Constantinople for missionaries who could help him strengthen Christianity among the Slavs. (It must be stated that the motives impelling him were not solely religious, but also political. By strengthening Christianity among the Slavs he was fortifying his own national independence against the new historical colossus of Germanism, which was forming at the time). The choice, probably made with the help of Patriarch Photius, naturally fell on the two brothers, and in the middle of 864 they arrived in Velehrad, the capital of Moravia.
\n—
\nAlexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a>
\n—
\nHere, along with their purely missionary activity, they began their great work of translating Christian writings into Slavic. From a legalistic point of view, they were working in a region that had been part of the sphere of influence of the Roman Church from ancient times.<\/p>\n

These were years of intense struggle between Pope Nicholas I and Patriarch Photius. To regularize their situation, or perhaps because of a summons from Rome, which had become disturbed at the growth of Greek influence among the western Slavs, the brothers quickly went to the Western capital, where Nicholas\u2019 successor Hadrian greeted them ceremoniously and affectionately. The Slavic Gospel was placed on the altar of St. Mary as a sign of papal blessing, and the Slavic liturgy was performed in many Roman Churches.<\/p>\n

The mission to the Slavs, beginning under the dual blessing of Byzantium and Rome, promised quick success, but the story of Constantine records the beginning of opposition as well, against which the brothers were obliged to defend their work. He was not destined to return to Moravia but died in Rome in 869, becoming a monk just before his death and obtaining his brother\u2019s promise to continue the work he had begun.<\/p>\n

Methodius was also unable to return to the scene of his first labors. While the brothers were in Rome, German pressure on Moravia had increased, and after 870 it became part of the Western empire. Methodius stayed farther south with the Pannonian Prince Kotzel, who shared Rostislav\u2019s views on strengthening Christianity among the Slavs as a defense against Germanism.<\/p>\n

Here, in all probability, he introduced the Slavic liturgy for the first time, and this caused many of his troubles. In 794 one of the Western councils had forbidden the celebration of the liturgy in any language but Latin, Greek, or Hebrew; technically, Methodius had broken this law. Besides, although Latinism was weak in Moravia, Pannonia had been under the administration of the Latin archbishopric of Salzburg for seventy-five years, and conflict was inevitable. The missionary to the Slavs was obviously \u201cout of bounds.\u201d
\n—
\nAlexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a>
\n—
\nBoth Kotzel and the archbishop of Salzburg appealed to Rome, which again supported Methodius. He was made head of a separate diocese of Pannonia, subordinate to Rome. But his enemies were not pacified.<\/p>\n

Methodius was accused of flouting the Church canons, condemned by the Sejm in Regensburg (an assembly of secular and ecclesiastical notables), and forced to languish in prison for two and a half years.<\/p>\n

All his complaints to Rome were intercepted. Under Pope John VIII he again received firm support for a while. Understanding the full significance of the Slavs, the pope appointed him archbishop of Moravia and stood by him, despite never-ending intrigues. So in ceaseless struggle, defending his own rights, betrayed by his enemies but supported by the people, Methodius lived on until 885.<\/p>\n

During this time immense work was accomplished, which was to fertilize the whole Slavic world. But the immediate work of the brothers fell to pieces among the western Slavs after Methodius\u2019 death. They could not hold off German pressures, and Pope Stephen, who could not understand the policy of his predecessors, simply liquidated the whole Slavic mission.<\/p>\n

The disciples of Methodius were driven out of Moravia, and only in the nineteenth century, during a time of Slavic renewal, did the work of Cyril and Methodius again become a rallying point for national liberation and western Slavic culture.
\n—
\nAlexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church — At the end of the seventh century came a new invasion from a Turkic people, the Bulgars, who asserted their authority in provinces settled by Slavs and began a struggle against the empire that lasted many years. As occurred later with the Varangian conquerors of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[13,10],"tags":[3538,3530,118,3539,89,3531,3509,3542,3543,3541,718,3532],"class_list":["post-1503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greek-history","category-orthodox-christianity","tag-bulgars","tag-byzantine-saints","tag-byzantium","tag-christianization","tag-constantinople","tag-eastern-slavs","tag-history-of-the-orthodox-church","tag-khazars","tag-moravia","tag-ninth-century","tag-photius","tag-prince-rostislav"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}