SLAVI

SLAVS. – A collective name for a large Indo-European family. Their prehistoric homeland was probably situated between the Baltic and the Carpathians.

The Slavic peoples migrated from their original settlements in various directions, forming three major groups: the Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and White Russians), the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs—also called Serbs of Lusatia or Wends), and the Southern Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians, and Macedonians). In the early Middle Ages, the Western Slavs occupied a vast expanse of the present-day North German Plain, extending as far as a short distance from Hamburg and beyond the Saale River. The reconquest of these territories by the Germanic population (which predated the Slavs but was numerically very sparse) is largely identified with the Christianization of those regions, which began in the 9th century. The territory occupied by the Slavs in Central Europe was very extensive in the early Middle Ages; in the territory of present-day Austria, there existed an ethnic continuity between Czechs and Slovenes.

I. RELIGION OF THE SLAVS

Perun is the god most venerated among the Russians. He presides over treaties between Byzantium and the pagan Russians as a guarantor for his followers, while Russian Christians appeal to St. Elijah, who has taken his place in Christian Russia. For Perun, like classical Zeus, is the god of lightning and thunder, who strikes with the thunderbolt and sends rain and fair weather; just as St. Elijah, who commands the elements of water and fire and ascended to heaven in a chariot of flames, is among all Christian Slavs the patron of atmospheric phenomena. Beside him must be mentioned Veles (Volos), god of herds and guarantor of oaths together with Perun. Among the Baltic Slavs of Lithuania (v.), he is called Perkunas with the same significance.

The Slavs of the Baltic group may be subdivided according to their settlements into: Slavs settled between the Elbe and the Oder; Slavs settled in Pomerania; and Slavs of the Island of Rügen. Thietmar of Merseburg, author of a *Chronicon* (early 11th century); Adam of Bremen, author of the *Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae* (late 11th century); and Helmold of Lübeck, author of a *Chronica Slavorum* (mid-12th century), are the most notable sources for the Baltic Slavs settled between the Elbe and the Oder, a group that was the most resistant to the penetration of Christianity.

The most notable deity of this group is Zuarasici, venerated in the city of Riedegost (Rethra), whose temple, described in detail by Thietmar, was entirely of wood, supported at the base by animal horns, carved on the exterior with images of gods, and containing idols within. Triglav, represented with three faces and venerated at Szczecin (Pomerania), was worshipped in one of the four temples of the city. His temple was adorned with sculptures of men and animals and served as a depository for tithes and booty. A black horse was used for divination: it was considered an omen if it crossed three times back and forth over nine spears placed close together on the ground without touching them.

The biographers of Otto, the missionary bishop of Bamberg, provide information about the Slavs of Pomerania. Svantovit, venerated at Arkona on the Island of Rügen, the last bastion of Slavic paganism, was represented by an idol larger than life-size, with four heads, a horn in its right hand which was filled with mead and foretold abundance or famine for the following year; it held a bow in its left hand and was tunicked down to the legs. The priest had to hold his breath while inside the temple, where only he was permitted to enter. The annual festival took place after the harvest: the supply of mead in the horn was replenished after omens had been drawn from the residue of the old, which was poured at the foot of the idol. The event concluded with a gargantuan feast. A sacred white horse, used for divination, was kept at the temple: it was an omen if the horse first moved its right foot, preparing to leap over a triple row of spears placed before the temple. The ritual is described by Saxo Grammaticus in the *Gesta Danorum*. The polycephalic nature of this and other Baltic deities signifies the god’s omniscience, whether of a celestial or solar nature.

The temples of the Baltic Slavs served both as places of sacrifice and assembly, and the major ones also represented an ethnic center. The Russians preferred open-air sites for worship, especially heights, woods, and mountains. All the Slavs had persons dedicated to cultic service. The priests of the Baltic Slavs were well organized and offered vigorous resistance to Christianity. They were primarily ministers of sacrifice, whereas among the Russians they were especially practitioners of divination and magic. The central rite of Slavic paganism was the sacrifice (*treby*) of oxen, rams, first fruits, and even humans—particularly Christians, who were very pleasing to the gods. Mountains, woods, and springs were the customary places of sacrifice.

The Slavs believed in an afterlife and had the root *nav* to denote the realm of the dead and *rapi* to denote a happy region for the souls of the departed. There is no written confirmation of this, but folklore supplies the deficiency. The dead were buried near trees, in forests, or in fields, and had their own festival. Forty days after death, a ceremony was held in honor of the ancestors, who were invited to a table laden with food, where the family was already gathered. The head of the household drank, letting a few drops of the liquid fall for the ancestors, and the others did likewise. The sounds of the wind, leaves, and animals in the silence of the night, under the ritual light of a bonfire, were certain signs of the presence of the ancestors at the family’s meal. Finally, they were invited to return to their abode.

Literature: A. Bruckner, *Mitologia slava*, Bologna 1923 (transl. from Polish); K. Meyer, *Die slavische Religion*, in K. Clemen, *Die Religionen der Erde*, Munich 1927; R. Pettazzoni, *Il paganismo degli antichi popoli europei*, Rome 1946; B. O. Unbegaun, *Les religions des anciens Slaves*, Paris 1948; V. PISANDI, *La religion de Balto-S.*, in Tacchi Venturi, *Storia delle religioni*, II, 3rd ed., Turin 1949.

**Evangelization** — Christianity had already spread among the Slavs by the tenth century, and their conversion is owed to Rome and Byzantium. The Western Slavs came under the influence of the Church of Rome, while the Eastern Slavs and part of the Southern Slavs came under that of the Byzantine Church. Thus the Slavs, besides being divided politically, were also divided religiously, and this centuries-old division had profound repercussions on their religious, socio-political, and cultural life, as well as on their mutual relations, since the Western Slavs entered the sphere of European civilization, integrating themselves fully, while the Slavs loyal to Byzantium were incorporated into Eastern civilization, in which the Church was bound and subjected to the State. The propagation of Christianity among the Western Slavs began under Charlemagne and continued under his successors, especially Otto I. The German emperors regarded missionary activity as a state task, and thus their colonizing and conquering policy went hand in hand with the propagation of the faith, creating confusion between the roles of conqueror and missionary. Generally, Christianity took root more quickly where there was already a state organization (Moravia, Croatia). Centers of diffusion were Salzburg and Passau in the eighth century among the Wends, the Croats of Carantania, and the Slovenes of Carniola and Carinthia. Among the Croats south of the Drava and in Dalmatia, Christianity had already spread between 640 and 80 through missionaries sent by the Pope. Under the successors of Charlemagne, the evangelization of Moravia began, which at that time included Slovakia, part of Bohemia, and northwestern Hungary. But Grand Duke Rastislav of Moravia, to escape the strong German influence, turned to Byzantium (862), from which Cyril and Methodius were sent to him; after the dissolution of the Moravian state (end of the ninth century), the influence of Rome definitively prevailed. At the same time, the penetration into Bohemia began, and the first Czech duke to be converted was Borivoj, together with his wife St. Ludmilla, while the diocese of Prague was founded in 973. From Bohemia, Christianity spread into Poland, whose first duke, Mieszko (960–92), was a great promoter of II. However, the majority of the Slavs were converted by the Greek Church, whose two greatest missionaries are Constantine-Cyril and his brother Methodius (see CYRIL AND METHODIUS). Their greatest merit and the reason for their great success was having translated the Holy Scriptures into Slavonic and having adopted that language for the liturgy. It is still used today by the Eastern Slavic Churches, while in the Roman liturgy it has been preserved only in the dioceses of Croatia in Istria, the Quarnero, and Dalmatia (see GLAGOLITIC), a privilege confirmed by Innocent IV (1248 and 1252). The Serbs accepted Christianity under Emperor Heraclius, but definitively only when Basil I defeated and subdued them (867–86).

The Bulgarians (see) were evangelized under Prince Boris (864) through Greek missionaries, but later, for political reasons, Boris turned to Rome, and Pope Nicholas I (866) sent other missionaries who converted the entire people to the faith of Rome. Byzantium, however, schemed until it brought Boris and the Bulgarians back into obedience to the Greek Church (870). The Russians received the faith from Constantinople: the total conversion of the people occurred only under Duke Vladimir (d. 1015). At the beginning of the eleventh century, there were already eight dioceses with a metropolitan residing in Kiev (see).

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**Fig. 1.** (photo: Enc. Catt.)

SLAVS — Gospel lectionary in ancient Glagolitic script (the so-called Bulgarian type) — Vatican Library, cod. vat. slavo III (10th century).

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**III. SLAVIC VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.** — The *Chronicle* of Nestor, from 89, recounts: “Methodius and Constantine (Cyril) translated the *Gospel*, the *Acts of the Apostles*, the *Psalter*. Methodius chose two learned priests, stenographers, and dictated the translation of all the books of Holy Scripture from Greek into Slavonic.” The translation of the *Gospel*, the *Acts of the Apostles*, and the *Psalter* is attributed to Cyril, while the translation of the other books is attributed to Methodius. The oldest manuscripts date to the eleventh century, some to the tenth. These early translation works were written in Glagolitic script, derived from the Greek cursive of the time, and only later were they transcribed into Cyrillic script, almost identical to Greek majuscules. The translation was made according to the Lucianic recension, or, as others believe, according to the Alexandrian.

The complete collection of biblical books in Slavonic was compiled by Archbishop Gennadius of Novgorod in the fifteenth century. Some books, still missing in Old Slavonic, were translated from the Latin Vulgate, such as the *Paralipomena*, *Ezra*, *Tobit*, and *Judith*. The fact that at the time of Gennadius not all the sacred books existed in Slavonic leads to the conclusion that part of the translations made by Cyril and Methodius was lost, or that the holy Slavic apostles had only translated pericopes for divine worship.

A new critical work was undertaken in the Bible of Prince Constantine of Ostrog (1581), reprinted in Moscow (1663) with few changes. Definitive corrections were made under Empress Elizabeth II (1751–56). This work remains to this day the standard edition for the biblical texts of worship, in use among the Russians, White Ruthenians, Serbs, and Bulgarians. The Elizabethan Bible also serves as the basis for the grammar of the Church Slavonic language, used in sacred (biblical and liturgical) books from the eighteenth century to the present day.

The period mentioned above is preceded by the Old Slavonic period of northern and southern (local and national) recensions, which extend from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, while the language of Cyril and Methodius flourished from the ninth to the twelfth century.

The versions of Holy Scripture in the spoken Slavic languages present themselves in different ways. In recent centuries, the number of Slavic nations has doubled. The situation of the nations of the Byzantine rite is different from that of the peoples of the Latin rite. The Eastern faithful (Russians, Ukrainians, White Ruthenians, Serbs, Bulgarians) learn and know Church Slavonic to such a degree that they can follow the reading of the pericopes (from the Old Testament), the Epistles, and the Gospel. Therefore, the Bible was translated into the spoken languages only in recent centuries. The first versions in the spoken languages are almost always parts of Holy Scripture, pericopes for worship, and made by the Catholic Church. Today, all Slavic nations (White Ruthenians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Croats, Poles, Russians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Ukrainians, Wends) have the Bible in their own language, complete editions, though not always made by Catholics.

Special mention should be made of the ancient versions. In Czech, there is the so-called Leskovska Bible (between 1395 and 1410). In White Ruthenian, that of Fr. Skorina (1517–19). In Polish, that of J. Wujek (1593). In Croatian, those of Stefano Konzul Istranin (1521–80) and Juraj Dalmatin (1550–89), Protestants; notable are the editions of Juraj Domačić and Vuk Karadžić. In Wendish, the Catholic version by Svetlik (1650).

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