The History of the Church through 100 Masterpieces

The Conversion of the Slavic World

The History of the Church 72 The Conversion of the Slavic World The effort to evangelize the pagans of northern Europe in the ninth century was double-pronged. While Charlemagne marched from the West into Saxon territory, a missionary movement from Byzantium penetrated the Slavic world. In 863, Photios, patriarch of Constantinople , sent two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, to Moravia. The Slavic rulers, uneasy with the expansion of the Franks, seized the opportunity to align themselves with a competing Christian pole. Basing their work on the Greek alphabet, Cyril and Methodius invented the Cyrillic , or Glagolitic, alphabet in order to translate the Scriptures and the liturgy into the Slavic tongue. These competing avenues of evangelization were not accidental, but a reasoned concurrence. Pope Hadrian II formally patronized the mission of the two brothers, and his successor, Nicholas I, approved their translation of the liturgy. In fact, Cyril died in Rome in 869, and in 1980, John Paul II proclaimed him and Methodius patron saints of Europe. The second phase of the conversion of the Slavs came one century later, when Vladimir, prince of Kiev, wed Princess Anne, sister of the Byzantine emperor. This brought about the conversion of the Rus prince of Scandinavian origin, who had united Poland and White Russia to Ukraine. However, anxious to maintain his independence, Vladimir did not place himself under the patriarch of Constantinople, but rather decided to align himself with the small Bulgarian patriarchate created by Cyril and Methodius. And it was with their liturgical texts in Old Slavonic that he converted what would become “holy Russia.” Victor Vasnetzov (1848–1926) The Baptism of Russia in 988 Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow ...