The phenomenon of ruler martyrs was common between the tenth and twelfth centuries in the recently Christianized lands on the eastern and northern periphery of Europe—one of them were the Orkney ...Islands with jarl Magnus Erlendsson (died in 1115/1117). Like Christ, who gave his life for the peace and redemption of the world, Magnus gave his life for the peace and redemption of the people of the Orkneys. This also explains why the earliest texts produced on the peripheries of medieval Europe were all about local saints. Wherever God’s presence was manifested through a saintly ruler, his people were, despite their late adoption of the new faith, integrated into the symbolic center of the Christian world. Consequently, the conduct of exceptional rulers to persevere in peace amid political violence was a manifestation of the creation of a new Christian community.
Knežja brata Boris in Gleb predstavljata prva kanonizirana vzhodnoslovanska svetnika (strastotrpca). Njima posvečene narativne/literarne tekste, nastale do začetka 12. stoletja, med katerimi ...stilistično in konceptualno izstopa Branje o Borisu in Glebu, opredeljujeta dve temeljni značilnosti: posredovanje sakraliziranega političnega zgleda v obdobju vse večje politične nestabilnosti na vzhodnoslovanskem ozemlju; in izpostavljanje duhovne »zrelosti« Kijevske Rusije v kontekstu zgodovine odrešenja. Obstoja kategorije knežjih ali kraljevskih svetnikov (strastotrpcev) ni mogoče imeti za posebnost vzhodnoslovanske srednjeveške kulture, saj se je tovrstno svetništvo nasploh pojavljalo v deželah na severnem in vzhodnem obrobju takratne Evrope.
Franc Grivec (1878–1963), a long-time professor at the Faculty of Theology in Ljubljana, is considered a pioneer in systematic research of Eastern Christianity among Slovenian authors. A significant ...part of Grivec’s published work is dedicated to the ideational analysis of the October Revolution of 1917, which presented a topical public issue of his time, conditioned by socio-economic change and the seeking of new collective identities. This is most thoroughly addressed in the monograph for a wider audience (National Consciousness and Bolshevism) originally written by Grivec based on his lectures to the primary- and high-school teachers of Ljubljana in 1944. According to Grivec, the extremism of the Bolsheviks represents a part of the wider mechanism of Russian cultural history, in which the concept of a messianic mission, starting with the idea of Moscow as the “Third Rome,” appeared several times. The mentioned author calls on Catholic intellectuals to assert Christian principles in public and foster a reflected national consciousness as opposed to the internationalist socialism, in order to prevent the success of the revolution on Slovenian soil. His views are organically complemented by France Dolinar (1915–1983), a representative of the younger generation of Catholic scholars of the time, who decided to live in emigration due to the political pressures in his homeland. Dolinar draws close to Grivec with the emphasis on the engagement for the common national cause against the “political partisan mindset”; on the other hand, Dolinar surpasses Grivec with his idea for the independent Slovenian state, which would be a real opposite to the socialist theory on the extinction of nations.
This article analyses the main traits of reception of Latin (Roman Catholic) Christendom in Kievan Rus’, drawing from the notion of its confessional ≫otherness≪ in relation to the Eastern Orthodox ...norm. The mentioned reception is studied according to the East Slavic narrative sources written at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth centuries, i.e., directly after the ≫Great Schism≪ (1054) between Constantinople and Rome. The author of this article accentuates the complexity of the Rus’ attitude towards Latin Christians on various levels: 1) upholding the official Orthodoxy, following the Byzantine doctrinal themes as adopted in Church Slavic polemical literature, while, simultaneously, 2) respecting practical considerations of dynastic ties between the East Slavic political elite and ruling families of the neighbouring Latin world, 3) and venerating particular Latin saints. In this respect, special consideration is given to the travel diary on the Holy Land titled Life and Pilgrimage of Daniel, the Hegumen of the Land of Rus’, serving as a prime example of encountering confessional differences. Daniel’s Pilgrimage is placed within the political and cultural context after the First Crusade during the Frankish rule over Palestine; it brings some valuable testimonies about the ≫Latin-Greek≪ relations in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as perceived by an educated ecclesiastical traveller, himself originating from an Eastern Orthodox environment. Daniel’s thematization of his confessional ≫other≪ in the Holy Land reveals a similar ambiguity in the case of Rus’ itself: on a declarative level, the polemical writings of the Kievan metropolitans testify about a negative position on the ≫Latin heresies≪; on the other hand, common veneration of particular saints, such as Olaf of Norway or Magnus of Orkney, and decisions of the East Slavic princes confirm the permanence of intercultural contacts and pragmatic willingness to cooperate with the neighbouring Catholic polities (Sweden, Poland, Hungary) in forming dynastic marriages and military alliances.
Prince Jovan Vladimir of Dioclea (Duklja, present-day Montenegro), who lived at the beginning of the 11th century, is regarded as the earliest known Slavic saint from the Western Balkans. His moral ...example and hagiographical narrative should be placed within the context of a wider phenomenon of ruler martyrs murdered out of political self-interest by Christians themselves which was common in the newly Christianized lands on the eastern and northern periphery of Europe between the 10th and 12th centuries. Such saintly personalities include, but are not limited to, Boris and Gleb of Rus' (on the eastern periphery) and Magnus Erlendsson of the Orkney Islands (on the northern periphery). The case of Jovan Vladimir's perseverance in love »until the end« concerns his innocent death ordered by his cousin Ivan Vladislav, tsar of Bulgaria. The life and martyrdom of Jovan Vladimir, depicted in the thirty-sixth chapter within the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, is based on the New Testament motif of the Good Shepherd serving as an example of a virtuous ruler who, through following Christ, lays down his life for his people.
Temelj pričujočega članka je vzhodnoslovanski potopis o Palestini z naslovom Življenje in romanje Danijela, igumana z Ruske zemlje, ki je nastal za časa jeruzalemskega kralja Balduina I. (1100–1118). ...Danijelovo Romanje spada v kontekst zgodnjega obdobja križarskih vojn oz. zgodnje frankovske oblasti nad Palestino, istočasno pa predstavlja najstarejši znani potopis v vzhodnoslovanski srednjeveški literaturi. Obravnavani tekst med drugim posreduje pričevanje o »latinsko-grških« (katoliško-pravoslavnih) odnosih v Jeruzalemskem kraljestvu, kakor jih je potopisec doživljal na svojem romanju po svetih krajih krščanstva. Na podlagi zgodovinske analize in literarnozgodovinske kontekstualizacije Romanja je katoliško-pravoslavne odnose v Jeruzalemskem kraljestvu na začetku 12. stoletja mogoče opredeliti kot dvoumne: po eni strani je opazna jasna ločitev med »nami« in »njimi«, po drugi pa je zaslediti strpno sobivanje in sodelovanje pri ohranjanju spomina na kraje, povezane z življenjem Jezusa Kristusa.
Članek temelji na literarnozgodovinski kontekstualizaciji dveh vzhodnoslovanskih narativnih tekstov iz sredine 15. stoletja, ki govorita o florentinskem koncilu (1438-1439): polemičnega spisa ...Izidorjev zbor in potopisnega poročila Potovanje v Firence. Avtor članka zagovarja stališče, da sta omenjena teksta ključna za razumevanje odnosa elite poznosrednjeveške Moskovske Rusije do Evrope in katoliške Cerkve. Pri Izidorjevem zboru je v članku izpostavljen pomen njegove ?protilatinske? polemične osti, kar je odločilno vplivalo na kasnejše vzhodnoslovansko dojemanje uniatskega vprašanja. Glede anonimnega Potovanja pa avtor članka izpostavlja dvoje: (1)gre za prvi vzhodnoslovanski potopis, ki se posveča ekonomskim in kulturnim značilnostim katoliške Evrope; (2) ta potopis izkazuje posredno relevantnost tudi za slovensko zgodovino, saj vsebuje izraz ?slověn'ska zemlja? (словтньсκа земля), ki bi po mnenju nekaterih slovenskih (literarnih) zgodovinarjev lahko označeval prednike današnjih Slovencev in predstavljal eno najstarejših posrednih omemb Slovencev kot jezikovne skupnosti. Čeprav avtor članka takšno mnenje ocenjuje kot sporno, priznava dejstvo, da Potovanje širše območje današnjega slovenskega ozemlja umešča v okvir pomembnih evropskih političnih in kulturnih tokov poznega srednjega veka.
In terms of ideational history and in accordance with the postmodern semiotic and discursive method, the article deals with The Sermon on Law and Grace authored by Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev (d. ...1054/1055). The text at hand is analysed as an important narrative historical source from the Kievan period of East Slavic mediaeval history or as an example of a theological and patriotic interpretation of the recent (secular) past in Kievan Rus'. The article highlights three main findings: firstly, The Sermon on Law and Grace aims to place the specific East Slavic historical experience into the broader framework of the history of redemption; secondly, Hilarion's theological and patriotic conception of salvation history is fundamentally defined by the image of Grand Prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich; thirdly, the cultural and historical "inferiority complex" that links East Slavic elites' notions with the religious and literary tradition of other mediaeval Orthodox Slavs is revealed under the surface of the patriotic self-affirmation.
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