BAROQUE SLAVICISMS IN BAROQUE HOMELITICS ABOUT CYRIL AND METHODIUS WRITTEN IN GERMAN

Abstract

This article deals with (after B. Zlámal’s 1938, M. Kopecký’s 1965, M. Hashemi 2010 studies) the topic of Cyril and Methodius’s Baroque homiletics written in German and its so-called Baroque Slavism. These sermons were devoted to Moravian compatriots living in Vienna on occasion of the feasts of Cyril and Methodius Vienna St. Michael’s Church in the period 1708 − 1782. First, there is offered a characteristics of the above-mentioned theme, with a recently confirmed hypothesis of the existence of 71 printed Cyril and Methodius sermons by its bibliographic database print in 1708 − 1779. Texts from 1780−1782 have only been found recently and probably sermons ceased being printed further on. The intertextual connections of texts have been traced. It has been discovered that the variety of historiographical sources quoted in the sermons are partly false, in fact those quotations are taken from Sacra Moraviae historia sive Vita SS. Cyrilli et Methudii (1710, written by the Catholic preast from the Czech lands, Jan Jiří Středovský, 1679 − 1713). Those include historical and pseudo-historical motives of the Cyril and Methodius’s life and of the type of Baroque Slavism. In this context, a hypothesis has been offered that the authors (mostly Moravian preachers) of Cyril and Methodius Baroque homiletics written in German partly express the defense of Slavs, concretely by accentuation of the etymology of the name Slave as “gloria” (and in this way confront the etymology of this name as “slaves”). This idea could be detected in the abovementioned text written by Středovský. There is given a parallel idea of importance of Cyril and Methodius’s mission for the development of authentic culture and for supporting its own inhabitants both in the research sermons and in Slavonic-Bulgarian History, written by Paisius of Hilendar. This paper was written with the financial support of the dean of The Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic (prof. PhDr. Josef Krob, CSc.).