Slavic peoples from Czech to Russia have the Bible to thank for their written language

Slavic tribes from the 7th to 9th centuries in Europe

MISSION TO MORAVIA



Saints Cyril and Methodius holding the Cyrillic alphabet," a mural by Bulgarian iconographer Z. Zograf, 1848, Troyan Monastery

The two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, had grown up near Slavs who had settled in Macedonia and therefore they knew the Slavic language.  Before embarking upon their mission, the evangelists began to prepare an alphabet for the hitherto unwritten language, so that the converts could have the Scriptures and liturgy in their native tongue.  This script, known as Glagolitic, was the forerunner of the form of writing now used in sotuh-eastern Eurpoe and Russia, w hich is called Cyrillic, after the younger brother.  By this means, Orthodox Christianity, and with it the culture of Byzantium, spread among the Slavic tribes.  This Byzantine culture determined the main lines of development for these peoples, especially the Russians, for centuries.  Thus Cyril and Methodius rightely earned the title of 'The Apostles of the Slavs'.

VLADIMIR'S CHOICE



The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, by Viktor Vasnetsov (1890)

The most illustrious fruit of the brothers’ Slavonic influence appeared when the pagan prince of Kiev, Vladimir, officially adopted Orthodoxy as the religion of his state. The magnificent legend of the conversion of the Russians narrates how Vladimir, around 988, decided that the interests of his realm required that he take up one of the major religions. According to the Russian Chronicle, Vladimir sent envoys to investigate Islam, Judaism, Latin, and Byzantine Christianity. The first three failed to suit, but he was won over by the report of those who returned from Constantinople, declaring that when they attended the mass in the great Church of St Sophia they could not tell whether they were on earth or in heaven. Vladimir ordered the mass baptism of the Russians according to the Orthodox form, and Orthodoxy became the state religion of Russia.

Iconostasis in the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin.

Although the details of the legend probably do not record actual history, they do reflect one of the most significant features of Russian Christianity. The forms of worship have always been more important than other aspects, such as theology or ethics. The primary appeal of Orthodoxy was aesthetic, rather than intellectual or moral. Indeed, the name of the religion in Slavonic, Pravoslavie, means ‘true worship’, reflecting the pre-eminence of the liturgy to the Russian mind.

The Baška tablet is an early example of the Glagolitic from Croatia.

After Vladimir’s conversion, the Slavonic books of Cyril and Methodius were brought to Kiev, so that the Russians received a benefit which Christians of the Latin-using Western Church did not enjoy. Their religious liturgy and writings existed in a language that was intelligible to all of them. Thus the church both civilized the Russian tribes and stimulated the growth of their native culture.

Yaroslav the Wise's consolidation of Kiev and Novgorod.

Vladimir’s son and successor, Yaroslav I, the Wise, (r. 1019–54), cemented the bonds between the Russian Church and Byzantine Orthodoxy by accepting for his realm a bishop appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch. In this way he acknowledged Constantinople as the overseer of the Russian Church. Yaroslav provided the bishop, consecrated as the Metropolitan of Kiev, with a cathedral which he dedicated as St Sophia’s, in imitation of the mother church in Constantinople. For most of the next four hundred years, the head of the Russian Church was a Greek appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The envoys of the Roman Pope attend Alexander Nevsky

Yaroslav’s death coincided with the year traditionally regarded as marking the final rupture between the Latin and Greek Churches (1054). The newly-converted Russians quickly learned to despise the Catholics as ‘heretics’. Their hatred of the Latin Christians was greatly reinforced when German knights tried to take advantage of the chaos caused by the invasion of Russia by Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes in the thirteenth century and launched a Catholic crusade against the northern Russians. The Western invaders were repulsed by the heroic leadership of Alexander Nevsky in 1242. He was later recognized as a saint for his achievements.

Returning to Vladimir by Yaroslav II of Vladimir after Mongol destruction. From the medieval Russian annals

Nevsky established an important precedent for the Russians by submitting voluntarily to the rule of the Khan. For over two hundred years the Russians lived under the ‘Mongol Yoke’. During this period, the Russian Church continued to be led by the Metropolitan of Kiev and Vladimir, who was usually appointed and consecrated by Constantinople, but approved by the Khan. This situation goes a long way towards explaining why Russia never experienced a Renaissance and Reformation as Western Europe did.

Source: Steeves, Paul D., "The Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe and Russia." in Introduction to the History of Christianity, Second Edition, Tim Dowley, ed.,. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013, pages 104-106.