Image three: praise God in your native language. In my opinion, the crucial moment of the Slavs was depicted by this third image. The turning point in the destiny of the Slavic peoples, the moment when the Slavs gave themselves an identity. Alfons Mucha depicted here how in the ninth century the Moravian prince Rostislav asked the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius to translate parts of the Bible and other liturgy, a move that outraged the German bishops and Catholic Rome.
The Great Moravian Empire was not just a loose union of tribes, but a united state that successfully faced the onslaughts of the Franks. Ecclesiastically, however, it was subordinate to the Bavarian bishops, and its ruler, Prince Rastislav, understood that only the establishment of an independent ecclesiastical organisation would strengthen the country's position. Between 860 and 861 he therefore asked the Roman Pope Nicholas I for spiritual help. The latter, however, refused his request. Rastislav therefore appealed to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send teachers to Moravia who were able to spread the Christian faith in an understandable, i.e. Slavic, language.
In 863, the educated Constantine, who later took the name Cyril, and his brother Methodius arrived from Thessaloniki. They composed a new script, the Glagolitic alphabet, and used it to translate the Gospels. The divines selected able disciples, taught them the script and the worship in the Slavonic language. Although these services were fiercely fought against by Latin priests, Methodius' consistency prevailed and Old Slavonic became an equal ecclesiastical language in Great Moravia.
The painting represents the capital of Great Moravia - Velehrad. Prince Svatopluk sits on a raised table in the centre of the court, surrounded by his retinue, with bishops and grandees standing in front of him. The deacon reads the letter by which the Pope appoints Methodius archbishop, subordinates Bishop Wiching, who is based in Nitra, to him and authorises him to celebrate services in the Slavonic language. The Frankish knights also humbly observe him. In front of the rotunda, painted after the church of St George in Thessaloniki, Methodius, who returned from his third journey to Rome in 880, stands at the head of a procession of his disciples. Cyril entered a monastery in Rome and is buried there.
The group of people on the top left symbolizes the violent spread of Christianity by the Franks at that time. Below left in the hood is Cyril protecting the Moravians from heaven. In the upper right part of the painting there are four figures by which Mucha depicts the liturgical connection of Great Moravia with Kievan Rus' - St. Olga with her husband Igor, and with Great Bulgaria - St. Boris with his wife. The two figures in the centre, seated on a sword in the shape of a boat, are the sons of St Vladimir, Gleb and Boris, the patron saints of sailors and protectors of merchants. They symbolize that all Slavic peoples have gradually sailed into the port of Christianity. The figure of the young man with a circle and clenched fist is a symbol of strength, cohesion and Slavic unity.
Above left is a group of grieving women being comforted by Cyril himself. Above them in the middle is Rostislav with the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. The group of four figures on the top right depict Russian and Bulgarian rulers who supported the Slavonic liturgy.
Read also: Slavic Epic by Alfons Mucha - painting Second: The Feast of Svantovít on Ruján - When the gods are at war, salvation is in art
Jan Vojtěch, Editor-in-chief, General News
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