The Christianization of Moravia refers to the spread of the Christian religion in the lands of medieval

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

(

Great Moravia Great Moravia ( la, Regnum Marahensium; el, Μεγάλη Μοραβία, ''Meghálī Moravía''; cz, Velká Morava ; sk, Veľká Morava ; pl, Wielkie Morawy), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavs, Wes ...

What modern historians designate as

was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe from around 830 to the early 10th century. The territory of Great Moravia was originally evangelized by missionaries coming from the

Frankish Empire Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

enclaves in Italy and

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

since the early 8th century and sporadically earlier. The

diocese of Passau The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. The first Christian church of the Western and Eastern Slavs known to the written sources was built in 828 by

Pribina Pribina (c. 800861) was a Slavic prince whose adventurous career, recorded in the ''Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians'' (a historical work written in 870), illustrates the political volatility of the Franco–Slavic frontie ...

, the ruler and Prince of the

Principality of Nitra The Principality of Nitra ( sk, Nitrianske kniežatstvo, Nitriansko, Nitrava, lit=Duchy of Nitra, Nitravia, Nitrava; hu, Nyitrai Fejedelemség), also known as the Duchy of Nitra, was a West Slavic polity encompassing a group of settlements th ...

, although probably still a pagan himself, in his possession called Nitrava (today

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth la ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

). The first Moravian ruler known by name, Mojmír I, was baptized in 831 by Reginhar, Bishop of Passau. Due to internal struggles between Moravian rulers, Mojmir was deposed by

Rastislav Rastislav or Rostyslav is a male Slavic given name, meaning "''to increase glory''" . The name has been used by several notable people of Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Serbian, Czech and Slovak backgrounds. *Old Slavonic, Serbian, Slovak, Slove ...

in 846; as Mojmir was aligned with Frankish Catholicism, Rastislav asked for support from the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and aligned himself with

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...

. Despite the formal endorsement by the elites, the Great Moravian Christianity was described as containing many pagan elements as late as in 852. The major milestone in the Christianization of Moravia is traditionally attributed to the influence of Byzantine missionary brothers,

Saints Cyril and Methodius Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (815–885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are credited wit ...

, who arrived in Moravia in the year 863. Cyril translated the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

and the

pericope A pericope (; Greek , "a cutting-out") in rhetoric is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture. Also can be used as a way to identify certain themes in a cha ...

s into the

Slavic language The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...

(their translation became the foundation of the

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...

language), giving rise to the popular Slavic church, quickly surpassing the previously struggling Roman Catholic missions with their foreign German priests and Latin liturgy. A few years later, the nearby

Duchy of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy, ( cs, České knížectví) was a monarchy and a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages. It was formed around 870 ...

was also converted, with its ruler baptised in 867. (the christianization of Moravia would also affect Poland, which was christianized a century later, and where Moravian missionaries were among the early evangelizers). Soon Ratislav succeeded in created a church independent of both the Germans and Constantinople, subordinated directly to the

See of Rome The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

. New

diocese of Pannonia The Diocese of Pannonia ( la, Dioecesis Pannoniarum, lit. "Diocese of the Pannonias"), from 395 known as the Diocese of Illyricum, was a diocese of the Late Roman Empire. The seat of the ''vicarius'' (governor of the diocese) was Sirmium. Hist ...

was inaugurated, with Methodius as its first archbishop. After the death of Ratislav successor,

Svatopluk I Svatopluk I or Svätopluk I, also known as Svatopluk the Great (Latin: ''Zuentepulc'', ''Zuentibald'', ''Sventopulch'', ''Zvataplug''; Old Church Slavic: Свѧтопълкъ and transliterated ''Svętopъłkъ''; Polish: ''Świętopełk''; Greek ...

, Moravia was mostly partitioned between its neighbours (Germany, Bohemia and Hungary) and the Slavic church went into decline, replaced by the churches better established in those other territories. A number of expelled Slavic church priests found refuge in Bulgaria, where a number of their traditions became incorporated into the early

Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( bg, Българска православна църква, translit=Balgarska pravoslavna tsarkva), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria ( bg, Българска патриаршия, links=no, translit=Balgarsk ...

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , last = Barford , first = P. M. , title = The early Slavs : culture and society in early medieval Eastern Europe , publisher = Cornell University Press , year = 2001 , location = Ithaca, NY {{Citation, first=Petr , last=Sommer, author2=Trestik, Dusan , author3=Zemlicka, Josef , contribution=Bohemia and Moravia, title=Christianization and the rise of Christian monarchy : Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' c. 900-1200, editor-first=Nora, editor-last=Berend, publisher=Cambridge University Press, place=Cambridge, UK ; New York, pages=214–262, year=2007 {{cite book , last = Stanislav , first = Ján , title = Životy slovanských apoštolov Cyrila a Metoda. Panonsko-moravské legendy. , publisher = Vydané spoločne nakladateľstvom Slovenskej ligy a L. Mazáča , year = 1934 , location = Bratislava, Praha , url = http://www.proglas.sk/Metod.htm , access-date = 2009-10-09 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080325040146/http://www.proglas.sk/Metod.htm , archive-date = 2008-03-25 , url-status = dead {{cite journal, title=The Origins of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in Slavonic Countries North of the Middle Danube Basin, journal=World Archaeology, year=1978, first=Josef, last=Poulik, volume=10, issue=2, pages=158–171, doi=10.1080/00438243.1978.9979728 {{cite book, author=James Minahan, title=One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwvoM-ZFoAgC&pg=PA201, access-date=14 June 2013, date=1 January 2000, publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group, isbn=978-0-313-30984-7, pages=200–201 {{cite book, author=Philip Schaff, title=History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073., url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5CV_-6BGFgC&pg=PT161, access-date=15 June 2013, publisher=CCEL, isbn=978-1-61025-043-6, pages=161–162 {{cite book, author=Philip Schaff, title=History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Medieval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073., url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5CV_-6BGFgC&pg=PT161, access-date=15 June 2013, publisher=CCEL, isbn=978-1-61025-043-6, pages=163–164 {{cite book, author=Philip Schaff, title=History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073., url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5CV_-6BGFgC&pg=PT161, access-date=15 June 2013, publisher=CCEL, isbn=978-1-61025-043-6, pages=164–166 ''

Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum The ''Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum'' ("The Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians") is a Latin history written in Salzburg in the 870s. It describes the life and career of Salzburg's founding saint Rupert (d. 710), notably his ...

: "Adalramus archepiscopus ultra Danubium in sua proprietate loco vocato'' Nitrava ''consecravit ecclesiam."'' ''("Archbishop Adalram consecrated a church for him over the Danube on his possession called Nitra.")'' {{cite book, editor=Bartoňková Dagmar, title =Magnae Moraviae fontes historici III, publisher =Statni pedagogicke nakl., year =1969, location =Praha , chapter=Libellus de conversione Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (i.e. Conversio), display-editors=etal

External links

Cyrillus and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavs. Christianization of Moravia, Bohemia and Poland.
History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590–1073.

863 Great Moravia 9th-century Christianity History of Christianity in the Czech Republic

See also

References

External links