SAINTS METHODIUS AND CYRIL IN THE HYMNOGRAPHY OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE CZECH LANDS AND SLOVAKIA

Abstract

Orthodoxy in the Czech and Moravian territories in the New Age was initially present thanks to the Russian embassy and Russian visitors to the various Czech resorts, but it was also associated with the intensification of the Cyril and Methodius cult in Western and Eastern Europe (1848, 1863, 1869, 1880-1881, 1885), the development of Slavic philology and the pro-Russian Slavophile sentiments among the intelligentsia. In Slovakia, the situation was different - the Eastern rite was spread in the Uniate structures, with the nascent pursuit of Orthodoxy, especially among the Carpathian Ruthenians. The leading idea of the emergence of Orthodox philological sentiments and movements was the Cyril and Methodius idea and its traces in Moravia, Bohemia, Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ruthenia. The very founding of the Orthodox Church in the country is the work of the Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije (Pavlović). At the head of this Church stands Fr. Matěj Pavlík (1879-1942), ordained by the Serbian Patriarch in 1921. Bishop Gorazd II is preparing an epoch-making liturgical collection: Lidový sborník modliteb a bohoslužebných zpĕvů Pravoslavné Církve (1934, 2nd ed. 1951), including all possible futures of the Cyril and Methodius tradition. He chose July 5 for the main celebration of Cyril and Methodius, which continues on July 6 with the liturgical memory of St. John Hus, also a national holiday of the Republic. The solemn service mentions the Holy Brothers, their disciples and ideological followers several times. A great event reviving the Cyril and Methodius theme in a new geopolitical situation in the 90s of the last century is related to the proclamation of Prince Rostislav of Moravia as a saint with the date of remembrance October 28. The Episcopal Council decided on this in December 1992, and the celebrations took place in October 1994. The liturgical texts dedicated to him in many places speak of the Holy Brothers. Since 2015, the cult of St. Lyudmila, giving it the features of a nationwide cult. The events obscured the liturgical cult practised for centuries in the Orthodox Church, but it is also trying to join this program.