„Nationalisierung” der Heiligenverehrung. Bulgarische, tschechische und polnische Parallelen in der Entwicklung des Kyrillo-Methodianischen Kultes
Patriotic interpretations of the Cyrillo-Methodian motive in the context of Christianization of the Slavic nations. Its Bulgarian, Czech and Polish pa

Summary/Abstract: The ideologies of all Slavic nations have been using often the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition as a sign of its national identity. The article presents some medieval examples of this phenomenon, tracking the changes of the idea. Described by the Old Bulgarian writers (of the 9th–10th centuries) and by the sources related to the papal curia as an all-Slav achievement, the work of SS Cyril and Methodius gains different “national” characteristics in the course of time. An emphasis is put on the Greek Cyrillo-Methodian literary tradition, in which the fi¬gures of the two Slavic teachers are closely interwoven in the idea of Bulgarian national virtue. Stressing strongly the Bulgarian pattern of the Cyrillo-Methodian work, the Greek archbi¬shops of Achrida adduce arguments promoting independence of their diocese (founded by the emperor Vasilios II Bulgaroctonos as an archbishopric of the captured Bulgarian lands) from Constantinople. Analogs belonging to the west Slavs medieval historiography are also presented: such as the Granum of the Bishopric of Olomouc. The paper deals also with the issue of the Christianization of Slavs and its patriotic interpretations, which present the saint brothers as Teachers and Confessors of Bulgarians, Moravians, Czechs and Poles.

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