In the mountainous region of Carpatho-Rus, known also as Carpatho-Ruthenia, situated between present day Slovakia and Ukraine, there is a group of Eastern Christians. Evangelized in the ninth century by those equals-to-the-apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius, this group received the Holy Gospel and Sacred Mysteries (Sacraments) from the Byzantine Church of Constantinople. Although Cyril and his brother, Methodius, were Greek (from Thessalonika), they promoted the use of the ancient Slavonic language in worship. This language, later known as Old Church Slavonic, would become the liturgical language of the Carpatho-Rusyns and all Slavonic Christians, both Orthodox and Catholic. In time, Cyril and Methodius brought their liturgical books to Rome to receive the blessings of Pope Hadrian, and he in turn blessed their mission of establishing the Greek (Byzantine) Catholic religion in the Carpathian mountains of Central Europe.
Over time, a rift grew between East and West; and, in 1054, estrangement was realized with the Great Schism of Constantinople and Rome. Being an Eastern Church, the Carpatho-Rusyns were eventually drawn into by this unfortunate break and became members of the Orthodox Church. This ecclesia sui iuris (self-governing church) of Mukachevo-Uzhorod in time sought reunion with the Church of Rome, re-establishing its Catholic faith while maintaining the spirituality, ceremonies, and discipline of the Eastern Church. On April 24, 1646, in Saint George Castle Garden in Uzhorod, a number of priests and faithful proclaimed vocally their reunion with the Catholic Church, re-establishing the unity that Christ so ardently prayed for. From this nucleus would grow a reborn church which the Empress Maria Theresa of Austro-Hungary would later call "The Greek Catholic Church" -- "Greek" in its ritual, theology and art; "Catholic" in union with the Bishop of Rome. In time, the reunion would spread to other areas of Europe, and new eparchies (dioceses) would be created in such places as Presov (Slovakia), Krizevci (Croatia), Hajdudorog and Miskolc (Hungary).
In the 1870’s, the first wave of Carpatho-Rusyn immigration brought significant numbers of Greek Catholics to the United States of America. The first parish they founded on these shores was Saint Michael's in Shannandoa, PA followed by an establishment in Freeland, PA. Others were established in places like Wilkes-barre and Kingston, PA, and in Jersey City and Passaic, NJ. Unfortunately, the ignorance of most American Catholics of the Latin Church regarding Greek Catholic practices promised by Rome at Uzhorod -- such as a married priesthood and other privileges and traditions -- led the immigrant church into conflict with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minneapolis/St. Paul, John Ireland, which prompted one Greek Catholic priest, Father Alexis Toth, to take his small flock out of union with Rome and seek union with the Russian Orthodox Church, creating the nucleous of what would become known as the Orthodox Church of America. To this day, the OCA venerates Father Toth as the father of Orthodoxy in America.
But despite such idealogical struggles, the Greek Catholic Church in America continued to grow, and there was seen a growing need for hierarchial leadership. In 1905, Father Andrew Hodobay was sent by Rome as Apostolic Visitor to care for the immigrant church; but, being a Hungarian, he was not the proper leader for a predominantly Slavic church. Rome, then, in turn, sent two men to care for what would become two separate administrations for the American Greek Catholics: Father Peter Poniatishyn for the Ukrainians, and Father Gabriel Martyak for the Carpatho-Rusyns (Ruthenians). By this time parishes were springing up all over Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and the Northeast. In 1924 Rome raised the status of the American Greek Catholic Ruthenian community to that of an Exarchate (Apostolic Vicariate) with Bishop Basil Takach as its first exarch, establishing Saint John the Baptist Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Homestead/Munhall neighborhood as its seat. Meanwhile, Greek Catholic immigration continued from Carpathia as well as Hungary and Croatia. Not only were parishes and priests being established and assigned, but the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great received a call from Bishop Takach to minister to the immigrant church, and they eventually settled in Uniontown, PA, after a number of temporary locations.
The storm that had erupted over a married priesthood back in the 1890’s would continue to erupt sporadically during this period of growth, exasperated by a Vatican proclamation, Ea Semper, issued in 1905, which severely mitigated the rights of Greek Catholics in the United States; and, certain members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in America sought both to prohibit the immigration of married Greek Catholic priests and to forbid their ordination in North America. Appeals to Rome from the American Greek Catholic community were futile; and, In 1929, another proclamation, Cum Data Fuerit, was issued by Pope Pius XI, forbidding the service of married Greek Catholic priests in the United States, requiring them to return to Europe. This decree became the rallying cry for another segment of American Greek Catholics, dedicated to safeguarding the Eastern heritage of their church, to once again fall into schism. A pastor in Bridgeport, CT, Father Orestes Chornock, was elected Bishop of a new Independent Greek Catholic Church, and was consecrated a bishop by the Patriarch of Constantinople, eventually setting his See in Johnstown, PA. This would, in time, be known as The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese. Despite this sad turn of events, the American Greek Catholics in union with Rome continued to grow and establish new parishes; and, in 1950, Saints Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary was established by the second Bishop of Pittsburgh, Daniel Ivancho, for the spiritual and educational formation of a native clergy.
As the decades of the twentieth century progressed, missionary efforts led to the establishment of parishes in California, Florida and even in Alaska. The term "Greek Catholic" would change to "Byzantine Catholic," stressing that the church was not Hellenic (Greek) in nationality, and that the spirituality and liturgical services were of the Byzantine Rite; also, English, now the vernacular, became the dominant liturgical language. The church was then honored in its growth and permanence by the elevation of Pittsburgh as an Eparchy (diocese) in 1963, with Bishop Nicholas T. Elko as first Eparch, after serving as Exarch since 1955. In addition, the East Coast was given their own Eparchy, Passaic, NJ, with Bishop Stephen J. Kocisko as first Eparch, and with the church of Saint Michael the Archangel designated as the Cathedral. The Eparchy of Passaic would encompass the entire eastern sea coast of the United States, from Maine to Florida. In 1968, Bishop Stephen Kocisko was transferred to the Eparchy of Pittsburgh, and subsequently Bishop Michael Dudick was consecrated and enthroned as the second Eparch of Passaic. The crowning achievement of this near century of ecclesiastical growth would be the creation, in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, of a Metropolian Church ecclesia sui uris based in Pittsburgh. This Metropolia would have as its suffragan sees the Eparchy of Passaic (covering the East) and the newly-created Eparchy of Parma, OH, (in the Midwest) governed by Bishop Emil Mihalik as its first eparch. The church of Saint John the Baptist in Parma, OH, would serve as Cathedral for the new eparchy. Bishop Mihalik endeavored to establish more churches in the outer-most parts of his eparchy in places such as Las Vegas, NV, Albuquerque, NM, and Denver, CO. The growth of these Western missions and churches was acknowledged by Pope John Paul II through the erection of a fourth jurisdiction for Byzantine Catholics: the Eparchy of Van Nuys, CA; and, through the selection of Bishop Thomas V. Dolinay (then Auxiliary Eparch of Passaic) as its first eparch. He shepherded the eparchy from his seat at Holy Protection of the Mother of God Cathedral in Van Nuys until he was chosen, in 1991, to be Metropolitan of Pittsburgh, succeeding the ailing former shepherd, Archbishop Stephen J. Kocisko. Consequently, the auxiliary eparch of Passaic, Bishop George Kuzma, was enthroned as the second Eparch of Van Nuys, and, in 1997, moved his seat of administration to Saint Stephen Protomartyr Pro-Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ. In 1996, Bishop Michael J. Dudick retired after a long and pastorally beneficial ministry in the Eparchy of Passaic. Upon his retirement, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Andrew Pataki (formerly Eparch of Parma), as the third Eparch of Passaic.
The spiritual life of the Byzantine Catholic Church was and continues to grow with assistance not only from the Basilians of Uniontown, but also from Monasteries for men and women, such as The Basilian Fathers of Mariapoch, Matawan, NJ, as well as from Holy Dormition Franciscan Monastery, Sybertsville, PA.
The Byzantine Catholic Church is an Eastern Church in union with Rome; Carpatho-Rusyn in background and flavor, but indeed an American Eastern Church celebrating the Gospel in words, symbols, and action. We are unique in our mystical theology, blending the colors of our many ikons with the congregational acapella chants; raising up our hands and our fragrant incense in prayer and inviting you to come and see who we are and what we are all about as part of the Eastern half of the Universal Church.
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Historiebloggen: The Catholic Eastern Churches
The split between the Latin and Byzantine churches, which had been symbolized by the mutual excommunications of Patriarch Michael Cerularius and Cardinal Ugo da Silva Candida in 1054, became definitive in the minds of the common people in the east after the Crusades and the sacking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. Attempts at reunion took place at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 and at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438-1439, but neither was successful.
Subsequently, a Roman Catholic theology of the Church continued to develop which vigorously emphasized the necessity of the direct jurisdiction of the Pope over all the local churches. This implied that churches not under the Pope’s jurisdiction could be considered objects of missionary activity for the purpose of bringing them into communion with the Catholic Church. At the same time, the notion of “rite” developed, according to which groups of eastern Christians who came into union with Rome would be absorbed into the single Church, but allowed to maintain their own liturgical tradition and canonical discipline.
This missionary activity, which was sometimes carried out with the support of Catholic governments of countries with Orthodox minorities, was directed towards all the eastern churches. Eventually segments of virtually all of these churches came into union with Rome. It should be recognized, however, that not all these unions were the result of the activity of Catholic missionaries. The Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church, for example, was the direct result of a spontaneous movement of Orthodox towards Rome. And the Maronites in Lebanon claim never to have been out of communion with the Roman Church.
Inevitably, these unions resulted in a process of latinization, or the adoption of certain practices and attitudes proper to the Latin Church, to a certain degree, depending on the circumstances of the group. As a result, these churches sometimes lost contact with their spiritual roots. The monastic tradition, so central to Orthodox spirituality, died out in most of the Eastern Catholic churches, although religious life often continued in the form of congregations modeled on Latin apostolic communities. Since the Second Vatican Council, efforts have been made to reverse this process.
All of these churches come under the jurisdiction of the Pope through the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, one of the offices of the Roman Curia. It was created in 1862 as part of the Propaganda Fide (which oversaw the church’s missionary activity), and was made an autonomous Congregation by Benedict XV in 1917. It has the same role with regard to bishops, clergy, religious, and the faithful in the Eastern Catholic churches that other offices of the Curia have in relation to the Latin church.
The Oriental Congregation also oversees the prestigious Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, which is under the direction of the Jesuits and has one of the best libraries for eastern Christian studies in the world.
It should be mentioned that in the past the Eastern Catholic churches were often referred to as “Uniate” churches. Since the term is now considered derogatory, it is no longer used.
Most Orthodox view these churches as an obstacle in the way of reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. They feel that their very existence constitutes a denial by Catholics of the ecclesial reality of the Orthodox Church, and that these unions grew from efforts to split local Orthodox communities. They tend to consider Eastern Catholics either as Orthodox whose presence in the Catholic Church is an abnormal situation brought about by coercive measures, or even as Roman Catholics pretending to be Orthodox for the purpose of proselytism.
One of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, dealt with the Eastern Catholic churches. It affirmed their equality with the Latin church and called upon Eastern Catholics to rediscover their authentic traditions. It also affirmed that Eastern Catholics have a special vocation to foster ecumenical relations with the Orthodox.
The ecclesial life of the Eastern Catholic churches is governed in accordance with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, which was promulgated by Pope John Paul II on October 18, 1990, and had the force of law as of October 1, 1991. According to the new Eastern Code, the Eastern Catholic churches fall into four categories: (1) Patriarchal (the Chaldean, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian, Maronite, and Melkite churches), (2) Major Archepiscopal (Ukrainian, Syro-Malabar, Romanian and Syro-Malankara churches), (3) Metropolitan sui iuris (the Ethiopian, American Ruthenian, Hungarian, Eritrean and Slovak churches), and (4) other churches sui iuris (Bulgarian, Greek, Italo-Albanian, Russian, Belarusan, and Albanian churches, as well as the Ruthennian eparchy of Mukačevo and apostolic exarchate in Prague, and the three Greek Catholic jurisdictions in former Yugoslavia).
Each Eastern Catholic patriarchal church has the right to choose its own Patriarch. He is elected by the Synod of Bishops and is immediately proclaimed and enthroned. He subsequently requests ecclesiastical communion from the Pope. The synods of patriarchal churches also elect bishops for dioceses within the patriarchal territory from a list of candidates that have been approved by the Holy See. If the one elected has not been previously approved, he must obtain the consent of the Pope before ordination as bishop. A Major Archbishop is elected in the same manner as a Patriarch, but his election must be confirmed by the Roman Pontiff before he can be enthroned. Metropolitans are named by the Pope on the basis of a list of at least three candidates submitted by the church’ council of bishops.
A number of technical terms appear in this section. The term “eparchy” is the word used for “diocese” in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The two terms are used here interchangeably. An “Apostolic Exarchate” is the eastern equivalent of an Apostolic Vicariate in the Latin Church. It is a group of Eastern Catholic faithful that, because of special circumstances, has not been fully established as an eparchy. It is located in an area outside the territory of an Eastern Catholic Patriarch or Major Archbishop, and is headed by an Exarch (bishop). An “Ordinariate” is an ecclesiastical structure established for small groups of Eastern Catholic faithful, perhaps of more than one church sui iuris, in an area where they do not have a hierarchy of their own. In these cases the Ordinary will often be the bishop of a local Latin diocese. An “Apostolic Administration” is similar to an Ordinariate, but in this case the Apostolic Administrator governs vicariously in the Pope’s name.
In the following presentation, the Eastern Catholic churches are grouped according to their provenance. It begins with those that have no direct non-Catholic counterpart, and then considers the Eastern Catholic churches that correspond to the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, and, finally, the Orthodox churches.
The Congregation for the Oriental Churches Prefect: Archbishop Leonardo Sandri (born 1943, appointed 2007)
Secretary: Archbishop Cyril Vasil’, SJ
Via della Conciliazione, 34
00120 Vatican City State
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Subsequently, a Roman Catholic theology of the Church continued to develop which vigorously emphasized the necessity of the direct jurisdiction of the Pope over all the local churches. This implied that churches not under the Pope’s jurisdiction could be considered objects of missionary activity for the purpose of bringing them into communion with the Catholic Church. At the same time, the notion of “rite” developed, according to which groups of eastern Christians who came into union with Rome would be absorbed into the single Church, but allowed to maintain their own liturgical tradition and canonical discipline.
This missionary activity, which was sometimes carried out with the support of Catholic governments of countries with Orthodox minorities, was directed towards all the eastern churches. Eventually segments of virtually all of these churches came into union with Rome. It should be recognized, however, that not all these unions were the result of the activity of Catholic missionaries. The Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church, for example, was the direct result of a spontaneous movement of Orthodox towards Rome. And the Maronites in Lebanon claim never to have been out of communion with the Roman Church.
Inevitably, these unions resulted in a process of latinization, or the adoption of certain practices and attitudes proper to the Latin Church, to a certain degree, depending on the circumstances of the group. As a result, these churches sometimes lost contact with their spiritual roots. The monastic tradition, so central to Orthodox spirituality, died out in most of the Eastern Catholic churches, although religious life often continued in the form of congregations modeled on Latin apostolic communities. Since the Second Vatican Council, efforts have been made to reverse this process.
All of these churches come under the jurisdiction of the Pope through the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, one of the offices of the Roman Curia. It was created in 1862 as part of the Propaganda Fide (which oversaw the church’s missionary activity), and was made an autonomous Congregation by Benedict XV in 1917. It has the same role with regard to bishops, clergy, religious, and the faithful in the Eastern Catholic churches that other offices of the Curia have in relation to the Latin church.
The Oriental Congregation also oversees the prestigious Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, which is under the direction of the Jesuits and has one of the best libraries for eastern Christian studies in the world.
It should be mentioned that in the past the Eastern Catholic churches were often referred to as “Uniate” churches. Since the term is now considered derogatory, it is no longer used.
Most Orthodox view these churches as an obstacle in the way of reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. They feel that their very existence constitutes a denial by Catholics of the ecclesial reality of the Orthodox Church, and that these unions grew from efforts to split local Orthodox communities. They tend to consider Eastern Catholics either as Orthodox whose presence in the Catholic Church is an abnormal situation brought about by coercive measures, or even as Roman Catholics pretending to be Orthodox for the purpose of proselytism.
One of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, dealt with the Eastern Catholic churches. It affirmed their equality with the Latin church and called upon Eastern Catholics to rediscover their authentic traditions. It also affirmed that Eastern Catholics have a special vocation to foster ecumenical relations with the Orthodox.
The ecclesial life of the Eastern Catholic churches is governed in accordance with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, which was promulgated by Pope John Paul II on October 18, 1990, and had the force of law as of October 1, 1991. According to the new Eastern Code, the Eastern Catholic churches fall into four categories: (1) Patriarchal (the Chaldean, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian, Maronite, and Melkite churches), (2) Major Archepiscopal (Ukrainian, Syro-Malabar, Romanian and Syro-Malankara churches), (3) Metropolitan sui iuris (the Ethiopian, American Ruthenian, Hungarian, Eritrean and Slovak churches), and (4) other churches sui iuris (Bulgarian, Greek, Italo-Albanian, Russian, Belarusan, and Albanian churches, as well as the Ruthennian eparchy of Mukačevo and apostolic exarchate in Prague, and the three Greek Catholic jurisdictions in former Yugoslavia).
Each Eastern Catholic patriarchal church has the right to choose its own Patriarch. He is elected by the Synod of Bishops and is immediately proclaimed and enthroned. He subsequently requests ecclesiastical communion from the Pope. The synods of patriarchal churches also elect bishops for dioceses within the patriarchal territory from a list of candidates that have been approved by the Holy See. If the one elected has not been previously approved, he must obtain the consent of the Pope before ordination as bishop. A Major Archbishop is elected in the same manner as a Patriarch, but his election must be confirmed by the Roman Pontiff before he can be enthroned. Metropolitans are named by the Pope on the basis of a list of at least three candidates submitted by the church’ council of bishops.
A number of technical terms appear in this section. The term “eparchy” is the word used for “diocese” in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The two terms are used here interchangeably. An “Apostolic Exarchate” is the eastern equivalent of an Apostolic Vicariate in the Latin Church. It is a group of Eastern Catholic faithful that, because of special circumstances, has not been fully established as an eparchy. It is located in an area outside the territory of an Eastern Catholic Patriarch or Major Archbishop, and is headed by an Exarch (bishop). An “Ordinariate” is an ecclesiastical structure established for small groups of Eastern Catholic faithful, perhaps of more than one church sui iuris, in an area where they do not have a hierarchy of their own. In these cases the Ordinary will often be the bishop of a local Latin diocese. An “Apostolic Administration” is similar to an Ordinariate, but in this case the Apostolic Administrator governs vicariously in the Pope’s name.
In the following presentation, the Eastern Catholic churches are grouped according to their provenance. It begins with those that have no direct non-Catholic counterpart, and then considers the Eastern Catholic churches that correspond to the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, and, finally, the Orthodox churches.
The Congregation for the Oriental Churches Prefect: Archbishop Leonardo Sandri (born 1943, appointed 2007)
Secretary: Archbishop Cyril Vasil’, SJ
Via della Conciliazione, 34
00120 Vatican City State
Read more on www.Historiebloggen.nu
Historiebloggen: Metropolitan Isidore of Kyiv
Metropolitan of Kyiv, born at Thessalonica (Saloniki) towards the end of the fourteenth century; died at Rome, 27 April, 1463. He was one of the chief Eastern defenders of reunion at the time of the Council of Florence. He arrived at Constantinople, became a monk, and was there made hegumenos of the monastery of St. Demetrius. He had evidently received an unusually complete education: he knew Latin well, and had considerable fame as a theologian. He was also an accomplished orator; he seems from the beginning to have been eager for reunion with the West. It was the time when the Court of Constantinople, on the eve of its final destruction by the Turks, was considering the chance of rescue from the Western princes as a result of reuniting with Rome. In 1434 Isidore was sent to Basle by Emperor John VIII (1425-48) as part of an embassy to open negotiations with the Council of Basle. Here he made a mellifluous speech about the splendour of the Roman Empire at Constantinople. On his return he continued to take part in all the preparations for reunion among his own people. In 1437 he was sent by the Byzantine patriarch (Joseph II, 1416-39, a conspicuous friend of reunion, who died a Catholic at Florence) to be Metropolitan of Kyiv. He is constantly called Ruthenian Bishop of Kyiv. Kyiv was the old metropolis of Ruthenia. As soon as he arrived he began to arrange a Ruthenian legation for the council about to be held at Ferrara. Syropulus and other Greek writers charge Isidore with perjury because in spite of this he accepted the union. Isidore set out with a great following on 8 Sept., 1437, travelled by Luebeck, and arrived at Ferrara on 15, August, 1438. On the way he offended his suite by his friendly conduct towards the Latins. At Ferrara and at Florence, whither the council moved in January, 1439, Isidore was one of the six chief speakers on the Byzantine side. Together with Bessarion he steadfastly worked for the union, and never swerved afterwards in his acceptance of it.
After the council, the pope (Eugene IV, 1431-47) made him his legate for all Ruthenia and Lithuania. On his way back news reached Isidore, at Benevento, that he had been made Cardinal-Priest of the Title of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus. This is one of the few cases in which a person not of the Latin Rite has been made a cardinal. From Budapest in March, 1440, he published an encyclical calling on all Ruthenian bishops to accept the union. He at last arrived in Kyiv (Easter, 1441), and proclaimed the union in the church. He returned to Rome, and was graciously received by the pope in 1443. Nicholas V (1447-55) sent him as legate to Constantinople to arrange the reunion there in 1452, and gave him two hundred soldiers to help the defence of the city. On 12 December of that year he was able to unite three hundred of the Byzantine clergy in a celebration of the short-lived reunion. He saw the taking of the city by the Turks on 29 May, 1453, and only escaped the massacre by dressing up a dead body in his cardinal's robes. While the Turks were cutting off its head and parading it through the streets, the real cardinal was shipped off to Asia Minor with a number of insignificant prisoners, as a slave. Afterwards he wrote an account of the horrors of the siege in a letter to Nicholas V (P.G., CLIX, 953). He escaped from captivity, or bought himself free, and came back to Rome. Here he was made Bishop of Sabina, presumably adopting the Latin Rite. Pius II (1458-64) later gave him two titles successively, those of Patriarch of Constantinople and Archbishop of Cyprus, neither of which he could convert into real jurisdiction. He died at Rome on 27 April, 1463.
Isidore Of Kyiv, (born c. 1385, southern Greece—died April 27, 1463, Rome), Greek Orthodox patriarch of Ruthenia, Roman cardinal, Humanist, and theologian who strove for reunion of Greek and Latin Christendom but was forced into exile because of concerted opposition, particularly from the Byzantine and Ruthenian Orthodox churches, and by the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Abbot of St. Demetrius monastery in Constantinople and recognized for his cultured rhetoric, Isidore was sent abroad as envoy of the Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus to arrange for a council to unite the Eastern and Western churches. Unsuccessful, he returned to Constantinople and in 1436 was named patriarch of Kyiv and Ruthenia. Isidore attended the council, first in Ferrara (1438), then in Florence (1439), at which he was one of six Greek spokesmen. Together with the Greek cardinal John Bessarion, he drew up the document of unification that was proclaimed on July 5, 1439; soon after, he was made a Roman cardinal, thenceforth referred to as “the Ruthenian (Ukrainian Roman Catholic) cardinal.” Commissioned papal legate by Eugenius IV, Isidore successfully implemented the decree of union at Kyiv. He on Easter 1444 received sanctuary from King Ladislas of Hungary-Poland. From Siena, Isidore was dispatched by Pope Nicholas V to Constantinople and in December 1452, on the eve of the city’s fall to the Turks, solemnly announced to the hard-pressed Byzantines in the basilica of Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) the union of the Greek and Latin churches. Although the court and hierarchy were agreeable, the people rejected relations with the papacy. Isidore and his staff then joined in the futile defense of Constantinople. Wounded, he escaped capture by fleeing to Crete. Returning to Rome in 1454, he wrote of the traumatic experience of Constantinople’s collapse in his Epistula lugubris (“The Mournful Letter”). After resigning his other ecclesiastical offices in 1459, he received the honorary title Greek Patriarch of Constantinople from Pope Pius II, at whose election he assisted.
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After the council, the pope (Eugene IV, 1431-47) made him his legate for all Ruthenia and Lithuania. On his way back news reached Isidore, at Benevento, that he had been made Cardinal-Priest of the Title of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus. This is one of the few cases in which a person not of the Latin Rite has been made a cardinal. From Budapest in March, 1440, he published an encyclical calling on all Ruthenian bishops to accept the union. He at last arrived in Kyiv (Easter, 1441), and proclaimed the union in the church. He returned to Rome, and was graciously received by the pope in 1443. Nicholas V (1447-55) sent him as legate to Constantinople to arrange the reunion there in 1452, and gave him two hundred soldiers to help the defence of the city. On 12 December of that year he was able to unite three hundred of the Byzantine clergy in a celebration of the short-lived reunion. He saw the taking of the city by the Turks on 29 May, 1453, and only escaped the massacre by dressing up a dead body in his cardinal's robes. While the Turks were cutting off its head and parading it through the streets, the real cardinal was shipped off to Asia Minor with a number of insignificant prisoners, as a slave. Afterwards he wrote an account of the horrors of the siege in a letter to Nicholas V (P.G., CLIX, 953). He escaped from captivity, or bought himself free, and came back to Rome. Here he was made Bishop of Sabina, presumably adopting the Latin Rite. Pius II (1458-64) later gave him two titles successively, those of Patriarch of Constantinople and Archbishop of Cyprus, neither of which he could convert into real jurisdiction. He died at Rome on 27 April, 1463.
Isidore Of Kyiv, (born c. 1385, southern Greece—died April 27, 1463, Rome), Greek Orthodox patriarch of Ruthenia, Roman cardinal, Humanist, and theologian who strove for reunion of Greek and Latin Christendom but was forced into exile because of concerted opposition, particularly from the Byzantine and Ruthenian Orthodox churches, and by the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Abbot of St. Demetrius monastery in Constantinople and recognized for his cultured rhetoric, Isidore was sent abroad as envoy of the Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus to arrange for a council to unite the Eastern and Western churches. Unsuccessful, he returned to Constantinople and in 1436 was named patriarch of Kyiv and Ruthenia. Isidore attended the council, first in Ferrara (1438), then in Florence (1439), at which he was one of six Greek spokesmen. Together with the Greek cardinal John Bessarion, he drew up the document of unification that was proclaimed on July 5, 1439; soon after, he was made a Roman cardinal, thenceforth referred to as “the Ruthenian (Ukrainian Roman Catholic) cardinal.” Commissioned papal legate by Eugenius IV, Isidore successfully implemented the decree of union at Kyiv. He on Easter 1444 received sanctuary from King Ladislas of Hungary-Poland. From Siena, Isidore was dispatched by Pope Nicholas V to Constantinople and in December 1452, on the eve of the city’s fall to the Turks, solemnly announced to the hard-pressed Byzantines in the basilica of Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) the union of the Greek and Latin churches. Although the court and hierarchy were agreeable, the people rejected relations with the papacy. Isidore and his staff then joined in the futile defense of Constantinople. Wounded, he escaped capture by fleeing to Crete. Returning to Rome in 1454, he wrote of the traumatic experience of Constantinople’s collapse in his Epistula lugubris (“The Mournful Letter”). After resigning his other ecclesiastical offices in 1459, he received the honorary title Greek Patriarch of Constantinople from Pope Pius II, at whose election he assisted.
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Historiebloggen: The Ruthenian Catholic Churches
The motherland of Ruthenian Catholics is now in extreme western Ukraine southwest of the Carpathian mountains. The area was known variously in the past as Carpatho-Ukraine, Carpatho-Ruthenia, Carpatho-Rus, Subcarpathia, and now as Transcarpathia. Although the ecclesiastical term “Ruthenian” was formerly used more broadly to include Ukrainians, Belarusans and Slovaks as well, it is now used by church authorities in a narrower sense to denote this specific Greek Catholic Church. In terms of ethnicity, Ruthenian Catholics prefer to be called Rusyns. They are closely related to the Ukrainians and speak a dialect of the same language. The traditional Rusyn homeland extends beyond Transcarpathia into northeast Slovakia and the Lemko region of extreme southeast Poland.
In the late 9th century, most of this area came under the control of Catholic Hungary, which much later promoted Catholic missionary work among its Orthodox population, including the Rusyns. This activity culminated in the reception of 63 of their priests into the Catholic Church on April 24, 1646, at the town of Užhorod. The Union of Užhorod affected the Orthodox population of an area which roughly corresponds to today’s eastern Slovakia. In 1664 a union took place at Mukačevo which involved the Orthodox in today’s Transcarpathia in Ukraine and the Hungarian diocese of Hajdúdorog. A third union, which affected the Orthodox in today’s county of Maramures in Romania to the east of Mukačevo, took place in about 1713. Thus within 100 years after the 1646 Union of Užhorod, the Orthodox Church virtually ceased to exist in the region.
Early on there were jurisdictional conflicts over who would control the Ruthenian Catholic Church in this area. In spite of the desire of the Ruthenian Catholics to have their own ecclesiastical organization, for more than a century the Ruthenian bishop of Mukačevo was only the ritual vicar of the Latin bishop of Eger, and Ruthenian priests served as assistants in Latin parishes. The dispute was resolved in 1771 by Pope Clement XIV who, at the request of Empress Maria-Theresa, erected the Ruthenian eparchy of Mukačevo and made it a suffragan of the Primate of Hungary. A seminary for Ruthenian Catholics was set up at Užhorod in 1778.
After World War I, Transcarpathia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia. There were Byzantine Catholic dioceses at Mukačevo and Prešov. Although in the 1920s a group of these Ruthenian Catholics returned to the Orthodox Church [see Orthodox Church in the Czech and Slovak Republics], Rusyn ethnic identity remained closely tied to the Ruthenian Catholic Church.
At the end of World War II, Transcarpathia, including Užhorod and Mukačevo, was annexed to the Soviet Union as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Prešov, however, remained in Czechoslovakia [see Slovak Catholic Church]. The Soviet authorities soon initiated a vicious persecution of the Ruthenian Church in the newly acquired region. In 1946 the Užhorod seminary was closed, and in 1947 Bishop Theodore Romža of Mukačevo was poisoned by the communist authorities. In 1949 the Ruthenian Catholic Church was officially integrated into the Russian Orthodox Church. Rusyns on the other side of the Czechoslovak border were also forced to become Orthodox, while those in the Polish Lemko region were deported en masse in 1947 either to the Soviet Union or other parts of Poland. In all three countries, an attempt was made to wipe out any residual Rusyn national identity by declaring them all to be Orthodox and Ukrainian.
The collapse of communism throughout the region had a dramatic effect on Ruthenian Catholics. The first changes took place in Poland in the mid-1980s, where Lemko organizations began to surface and press for recognition of their rights and distinct status. In Czechoslovakia, the much-diminished Rusyn minority began in November 1989 to press for recognition within the predominantly Slovak Greek Catholic diocese of Prešov. And finally, in the Transcarpathian heartland, on January 16, 1991, the Holy See confirmed a bishop and two auxiliaries that had been functioning underground for the Ruthenian Catholic eparchy of Mukačevo. By 2006 the eparchy had 370 parishes served by 217 priests. Soon after the end of communist rule, the diocese was able to establish the Theodore Romža Theological Academy in Užhorod for the formation of clergy and laity.
A continuing issue for Ruthenian Catholics has been their relationship with the much larger Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. For the first time ever, the Mukačevo diocese finds itself functioning freely in the same country with the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Although it is not officially a part of the Ukrainian church and is still immediately subject to the Holy See, its bishops have attended recent Ukrainian Greek Catholic synods. The bishop of Mukačevo has made it clear, however, that he opposes integration into the Ukrainian Catholic Church and favors the promotion of the distinct ethnic and religious identity of his Rusyn people. This identity received a boost in March 2007 when the Transcarpathian Oblast Council voted to recognize the Rusyn people as an indigenous nationality of the region. As a result, the local government will be required to provide funding to promote Rusyn language, culture, and education.
In 1996 Pope John Paul II established an Apostolic Exarchate for Catholics of the Byzantine rite in the Czech Republic and appointed Fr. Ivan Ljavinec, until then the syncellus of the Prešov Slovak Catholic diocese, as its first bishop. One reason for the establishment of this jurisdiction – which was officially classified as belonging to the Ruthenian rite – was to regularize the situation of married Latin priests secretly ordained in Czechoslovakia under communist rule. Sixty of these priests had been accepted by the church but had been allowed to minister only as permanent deacons in the Latin rite because of their marriages. In 1997, 18 of these men were re-ordained Greek Catholic priests by Bishop Ljavinec. There are about 178,000 Greek Catholics in the Czech Republic.
Many Ruthenian Catholics immigrated to North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of strained relations with the Latin hierarchy and the imposition of clerical celibacy on the Eastern Catholic clergy in the United States in 1929, large numbers of these Catholics returned to the Orthodox Church. In 1982 it was estimated that out of 690,000 people of Rusyn descent in the United States, 225,000 were still Ruthenian Catholics, 95,000 belonged to the Carpatho-Ruthenian Orthodox diocese, 250,000 were in the Orthodox Church in America, 20,000 were in Orthodox parishes directly under the Moscow Patriarchate, and 100,000 belonged to various other Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant denominations.
In the United States today, the Ruthenians constitute a separate ecclesiastical structure with four dioceses, 222 parishes, 231 priests, 50 permanent deacons, and about 100,000 faithful. It is headed by Most Reverend William Charles Skurla (born 1956, appointed 2012), Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh (66 Riverview Avenue, Pittsburg, PA 15214). The official website of the Archeparchy is http://www.archeparchy.org/. This church, generally known simply as Byzantine Catholic, emphasizes its American character, and celebrates liturgy in English in most parishes. Candidates for the priesthood are trained at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh. In 1999 the Vatican approved a new particular law for the Ruthenian Metropolitanate which allowed for the ordination to the priesthood of married men who had received a proper dispensation from the Holy See.
In other areas of the diaspora, including Australia, Great Britain, and Canada, Ruthenian Catholics are not distinguished from Ukrainian Catholics.
In sum, today there are three distinct Ruthenian Catholic jurisdictions: (1) the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Metropolitanate in the United States, a metropolitan church sui iuris, (2) the eparchy of Mukačevo in Ukraine, which is immediately subject to the Holy See, and (3) the Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic. The relationship between the three has not been clarified. The bishop of Mukačevo is listed below as head of the church, but he has no authority over the other two jurisdictions. The membership figure includes the combined statistics for all three entities.
Location: Ukraine, United States, Czech Republic
Head: Bishop Milan Šašík (born 1952, appointed 2010)
Title: Bishop of Mukačevo of the Byzantines
Residence: Užhorod, Ukraine
Membership: 598,000
Website: www.mgce.uz.ua
Read more on www.Historiebloggen.nu
In the late 9th century, most of this area came under the control of Catholic Hungary, which much later promoted Catholic missionary work among its Orthodox population, including the Rusyns. This activity culminated in the reception of 63 of their priests into the Catholic Church on April 24, 1646, at the town of Užhorod. The Union of Užhorod affected the Orthodox population of an area which roughly corresponds to today’s eastern Slovakia. In 1664 a union took place at Mukačevo which involved the Orthodox in today’s Transcarpathia in Ukraine and the Hungarian diocese of Hajdúdorog. A third union, which affected the Orthodox in today’s county of Maramures in Romania to the east of Mukačevo, took place in about 1713. Thus within 100 years after the 1646 Union of Užhorod, the Orthodox Church virtually ceased to exist in the region.
Early on there were jurisdictional conflicts over who would control the Ruthenian Catholic Church in this area. In spite of the desire of the Ruthenian Catholics to have their own ecclesiastical organization, for more than a century the Ruthenian bishop of Mukačevo was only the ritual vicar of the Latin bishop of Eger, and Ruthenian priests served as assistants in Latin parishes. The dispute was resolved in 1771 by Pope Clement XIV who, at the request of Empress Maria-Theresa, erected the Ruthenian eparchy of Mukačevo and made it a suffragan of the Primate of Hungary. A seminary for Ruthenian Catholics was set up at Užhorod in 1778.
After World War I, Transcarpathia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia. There were Byzantine Catholic dioceses at Mukačevo and Prešov. Although in the 1920s a group of these Ruthenian Catholics returned to the Orthodox Church [see Orthodox Church in the Czech and Slovak Republics], Rusyn ethnic identity remained closely tied to the Ruthenian Catholic Church.
At the end of World War II, Transcarpathia, including Užhorod and Mukačevo, was annexed to the Soviet Union as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Prešov, however, remained in Czechoslovakia [see Slovak Catholic Church]. The Soviet authorities soon initiated a vicious persecution of the Ruthenian Church in the newly acquired region. In 1946 the Užhorod seminary was closed, and in 1947 Bishop Theodore Romža of Mukačevo was poisoned by the communist authorities. In 1949 the Ruthenian Catholic Church was officially integrated into the Russian Orthodox Church. Rusyns on the other side of the Czechoslovak border were also forced to become Orthodox, while those in the Polish Lemko region were deported en masse in 1947 either to the Soviet Union or other parts of Poland. In all three countries, an attempt was made to wipe out any residual Rusyn national identity by declaring them all to be Orthodox and Ukrainian.
The collapse of communism throughout the region had a dramatic effect on Ruthenian Catholics. The first changes took place in Poland in the mid-1980s, where Lemko organizations began to surface and press for recognition of their rights and distinct status. In Czechoslovakia, the much-diminished Rusyn minority began in November 1989 to press for recognition within the predominantly Slovak Greek Catholic diocese of Prešov. And finally, in the Transcarpathian heartland, on January 16, 1991, the Holy See confirmed a bishop and two auxiliaries that had been functioning underground for the Ruthenian Catholic eparchy of Mukačevo. By 2006 the eparchy had 370 parishes served by 217 priests. Soon after the end of communist rule, the diocese was able to establish the Theodore Romža Theological Academy in Užhorod for the formation of clergy and laity.
A continuing issue for Ruthenian Catholics has been their relationship with the much larger Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. For the first time ever, the Mukačevo diocese finds itself functioning freely in the same country with the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Although it is not officially a part of the Ukrainian church and is still immediately subject to the Holy See, its bishops have attended recent Ukrainian Greek Catholic synods. The bishop of Mukačevo has made it clear, however, that he opposes integration into the Ukrainian Catholic Church and favors the promotion of the distinct ethnic and religious identity of his Rusyn people. This identity received a boost in March 2007 when the Transcarpathian Oblast Council voted to recognize the Rusyn people as an indigenous nationality of the region. As a result, the local government will be required to provide funding to promote Rusyn language, culture, and education.
In 1996 Pope John Paul II established an Apostolic Exarchate for Catholics of the Byzantine rite in the Czech Republic and appointed Fr. Ivan Ljavinec, until then the syncellus of the Prešov Slovak Catholic diocese, as its first bishop. One reason for the establishment of this jurisdiction – which was officially classified as belonging to the Ruthenian rite – was to regularize the situation of married Latin priests secretly ordained in Czechoslovakia under communist rule. Sixty of these priests had been accepted by the church but had been allowed to minister only as permanent deacons in the Latin rite because of their marriages. In 1997, 18 of these men were re-ordained Greek Catholic priests by Bishop Ljavinec. There are about 178,000 Greek Catholics in the Czech Republic.
Many Ruthenian Catholics immigrated to North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of strained relations with the Latin hierarchy and the imposition of clerical celibacy on the Eastern Catholic clergy in the United States in 1929, large numbers of these Catholics returned to the Orthodox Church. In 1982 it was estimated that out of 690,000 people of Rusyn descent in the United States, 225,000 were still Ruthenian Catholics, 95,000 belonged to the Carpatho-Ruthenian Orthodox diocese, 250,000 were in the Orthodox Church in America, 20,000 were in Orthodox parishes directly under the Moscow Patriarchate, and 100,000 belonged to various other Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant denominations.
In the United States today, the Ruthenians constitute a separate ecclesiastical structure with four dioceses, 222 parishes, 231 priests, 50 permanent deacons, and about 100,000 faithful. It is headed by Most Reverend William Charles Skurla (born 1956, appointed 2012), Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh (66 Riverview Avenue, Pittsburg, PA 15214). The official website of the Archeparchy is http://www.archeparchy.org/. This church, generally known simply as Byzantine Catholic, emphasizes its American character, and celebrates liturgy in English in most parishes. Candidates for the priesthood are trained at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh. In 1999 the Vatican approved a new particular law for the Ruthenian Metropolitanate which allowed for the ordination to the priesthood of married men who had received a proper dispensation from the Holy See.
In other areas of the diaspora, including Australia, Great Britain, and Canada, Ruthenian Catholics are not distinguished from Ukrainian Catholics.
In sum, today there are three distinct Ruthenian Catholic jurisdictions: (1) the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Metropolitanate in the United States, a metropolitan church sui iuris, (2) the eparchy of Mukačevo in Ukraine, which is immediately subject to the Holy See, and (3) the Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic. The relationship between the three has not been clarified. The bishop of Mukačevo is listed below as head of the church, but he has no authority over the other two jurisdictions. The membership figure includes the combined statistics for all three entities.
Location: Ukraine, United States, Czech Republic
Head: Bishop Milan Šašík (born 1952, appointed 2010)
Title: Bishop of Mukačevo of the Byzantines
Residence: Užhorod, Ukraine
Membership: 598,000
Website: www.mgce.uz.ua
Read more on www.Historiebloggen.nu
Historiebloggen: The Vikings, Magnus Magnusson, 2000, Tempus, ISBN:0752417983,9780752417981
Historiebloggens bokrecension: The Vikings av Magnus Magnusson (2000), Tempus, ISBN:0752417983,9780752417981
9
They penetrated the depths of Ukraine, founding city-states like Kyiv, testing slavonic trade routes along formidabler rivers like the Dnipro, opening up the route to Asia to exploit the exotic markets of Persia and China.
The orb of the world, which mankind inhabits, is riven by many fjords, so that great seas run into the land from the Outer Ocean. Thus, it is known that a great sea goes in through Nörvasund (Straits of Gibraltar) all the way to the land of Jerusalem. From that same sea a long bight stretches towards the north-east, called the Black Sea, which divides the three continents of the earth, to the east lies Asia, to the west lies Europe (which some call Aeneas-land), but to the north of the Black Sea lies Ruthenia (Ukraine)...
From the range of mountains which lie to the north beyond the edge of human habitation, there runs a river properly called the Tanais (Don), which flows into the Black Sea. In Asia to the east of the Tanais there was a land called Asaland or Asaheimur (Land of the AEsir); its chief city was called Asgardur (Home of the AEsir). That city was ruled by a chieftan named Odin, and it was a great centre for sacrifices...
Thor was the Lord Protector of the Universe, guarding the world with his mighty hammer Mjöllnir against the menace of the Giants (Peoples of Giants in 6th century near Kyiv and river Dnipro).
18
After death, the ship was supposed to carry the dead man to the afterworld, either as a funeral pyre as described by the arab traveller Ibn Fadlan in 922.
21
Viking religion, the Asatru (Belief in the AEsir).
29
Red and white woven cloth (vadmal). A four-oared sailing dinghy (faering).
69
Throughout the viking age, one historic island can claim to have been the true centre of the viking world - the Baltic island of Gotland, off the east coast of Sweden. Although it is now a province of Sweden, it has always prided itself on its independence of view and action. Gotland lay at the crossroads of the world; it was the trade cruciable of the Baltic, the entrepot of east-west commerce.
A little whetstone was found in Gotland on the farm of Timans in the parish of Roma, dating from the late 10th century. It has a brief runic inscription scratched on it. It was not meant to be momentous message for posterity - frankly, it was just a doodle done in an idle moment; but what is says is momentous enough: "Ormiga: Ulfuair: krikiaR: iaursaliR: islat: serklat." Transliterated, it reads: "Ormiga, Ulfar: Greece, Jerusalem, Iceland, Serkland." Which means, in effect, "Ormiga and Ulfar have been to Greece (the Byzantine Empire), to Jerusalem, to Iceland, and to the land of the Saracens (probably Baghdad).
72
In the Historical Museum in Visby there is a beautifully ornamented bronze wind-vane for a ship's mast, dated to around 1000, and decorated with a writhing serpent in what the Norwgians call the Ringerike style; and a lion stands on the top edge.
There is some archeological evidence that Visby itself dates back to a 10th century Viking Age settlement, flanked to north and south by two satellite settlements at Gustavsvik and Kopparsvik whose grave-fields have been extensively excavated; and, more recently, indications of a port or lagoon-haven have been recognised at Pavik, near Västergarn on the west coast, and at Bogevik, near Slite, on the east coast.
75
Anundshög, just outside Västerås. This Anund has been associated with a shadowy King Braut-Önund. Not yet been excavated.
80
A memorial stone at a bridge at Broby (Bridge Farm) in Täby on the Viking Road was ercted as part of a set in memory of a farmer named Östen by his wife Estrid: Es sotti IorsaliR ok andathis uppi i Grikkium - "He visited Jerusalem and died out in Greece".
Another stone was found at Pilsgård, on the island of Gotland, in association with the harbour-lagoon at Bogevik, near Slite. The runes are now blurred, but it is a memorial stone erected by four brothers in memory of a fifth brother, Hrafh, who had died far away in Ukraine: "Hegbjörn and his brothers Rödvisl, Östen and Amund had this stone painted in colours and erected; they have also raised stones for Hrafn south of Rufstein. They went far into Aifur."
"They went far into Aifur". The significance of that sentence is that "Aifur" was the Norse name given to one of the frightening cataracts of the river Dnipro in Ukraine, where boats had either to shoot the rapids or be dragged overland to bypass them. It is a vivid glimpse of a family of five Gotland brothers on the make, carrying iron and furs and slaves, no doubt, to the markets of the East where they could exchange them for Arabic silver to be banked in buried caches at home on Gotland. One of them, Hrafn, died in the boulder-strewn torrents of the Dnipro; and the Pilsgård Stone immortalises not just him but the whole opening-up of the vast Ukrainian hinterland by those Viking merchant adventurers fron Gotland.
Ibn Fadlan wrote an account of his mission, called a Risala, in which he described his contacts with a tribe of armed merchants called Rus/Rutheni. One of the ceremonies Ibn Fadlan witnessed at first was a ship-cremation of a rich and important member of the tribe, which was proceeded by some gruesome rituals of sacrifice for which no parallels can be found in viking literature.
Archeologists tend to argue that vikings effect on what was fundamentally a Slav state, Ruthenia, which had been in existence for centuries before Scandinavian traders penetradeted Ukraine, was negligible.
The present inhabitants of Novgorod are descended from the varangian race, but earlier they were Slavs.
In the sagas, Ukraine was known as "Greater Sweden".
A confederation of tribes hade formed in the 6th century in the area of the middle Dnipro, and one of the eastern Chronicles mentions a "People of Giants". This "People of Giants" formed, so to speak, the nucleus of the future Kyiv state.
Vikings were attracted by the glamour of the Kyiv state, because the Kyiv state traded actively with Constantinople (Byzantium, Byzantine Empire). If they (vikings) wanted to join the trade convoys down the Dnipro to the Black Sea and Constantinople they had to apply for permission from the authorities in Kyiv. Permission to join these convoys from Kyiv depended entirely on the ruler of Kyiv at the time.
It is in the Hermitage that the classic conflict between hazy saga evidence and hard archeological fact begins to resolve itself. There is a cornucopia of viking finds to be seen in the Hermitage: a rune-stick (runakefl) like the Bergen stick. It has been dated to the first half of the 9th century.
In the icelandic sagas Staraja ladoga was called Aldeigjuborg, and is frequently mentioned as a target for attack or a convienent staging post on the way to Kyiv or Kyivan Rus.
There is no doubt that Staraja Ladoga was originally a Slav settlement, founded by some finno-ugrian tribe in the middle of the 8th century - a century before any traces of a viking presence. The earliest layers of house remains are non-Scandinavian, and dr.Anatoly Kirpichnikov of Leningrad thought they were built by southern Slav peoples moving northwards from the Novgorod area to develop trade with the Baltic. Staraja Ladoga provided easy access to the Gulf of Finland along the river Neva.
The vikings were simply immigrants who wanted to move in on Staraya Ladoga's growing prosperity; they came there, according to the archeological record, in the middle of the 9th century. Dr. Kirpichnikov thought that the legend of the calling-in of Rurik and his brothers might well have a kernel of historical truth, except that the settlement was not actually founded by Rurik.
Staraya Ladoga is the only early settlement in Eastern lands, which has a distinct viking cemetery; its dated to the second half of the century. This thesis is borne out by excavations at the 15th-century-fortress of Staraya Ladoga, which dr. Kirpichnikov himself carried out from 1972-6. He discovered that there were two earlier sets of walls underlying the present walls, and that the earliest dated back to the viking period of the late 9th century. The site has now been handsomely restored, and there are replicas of the major finds in an excellent little local museum. But although the building of the first walls corresponds roughly with the date of Rurik's alleged arrival, the finds of pottery and weaponry and jewellery associated with it are decidedly not Scandinavian - they are all Slav/Slavonic.
The stone fort at Staraya Ladoga was built by Rurik's successor, a man with the hybrid viking-slav name of count Oleg. By this time, however, the scandinavians in staraya ladoga had become almost completely Slavicised themselves - hence the lack of any specifically viking artefacts.
Excavations at Gnizdovo near Smolensk, with its 5000 burial mounds, show that many of the artefacts are of a hybrid culture; the proportion of "pure" scandinavian objects is very small. The number of scandinavian graves in the cemeteries constitutes only about 5%.
Overall, however, Anne Stalsberg's conclusions were very close to the position of most leading scholars: that the grave goods and other finds are evidence of normally peaceful relations between the viking incomers and the native population of Slavs. She found no evidence of scandinavians as invaders who created a state where there had been none before, and their (vikings') role in this was probably not as critical as the later literary sources would suggest.
The archaeological evidence from Novgorod, the second city said to have been founded by Rurik, is less clear-cut than that of Staraya Ladoga, but it may well have followed a similar pattern of Slav settlement and temporary viking takeover.
88
Traders would congregate in Kyiv in June, having waited for the spring floods to start to subside, and then set sail in huge convoys to face the perils of the voyage together. We cad read about these cataracts in a book titled De Administrando Imperio, written around 950 by no less a person than the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The emperor gave the names by which the individual cataracts were known: Essupi (Gulper), Gelandri (Yeller), Leanti (Seether), Strukun (Courser) and Aifur (Ferocious), the cataract recorded on the Pilsgård rune stone on Gotland in memory of at least one gotlandish trader who died in the fearsome rapids of the Dnipro.
Suddenly, in the year 907, Oleg is said to have swept down the Dnipro with a huge fleet and over the Black Sea. The fifteen envoys of Oleg, Great prince of Kyiv: "We the Rutheni - Karli, Ingjald, Farulf, Vermund, Hrodleif...".
The norsemen called Constantinople Mikligardur, the Great City. Original name was Bizantium. The Vikings came here in their hundreds, perhaps even thousands, all drawn by the same things: money and power. And yet, as in so many other places, the vikings left remarkably few traces of their substantial presence in Constantinople.
In Hagia Sophia, build 537 by emperor Justinian, in the 1967 the great swedish scholar professor Sven B.F. Jansson, one of the world's leading authorities on runic inscriptions, recognised one casual graffiti as being runic: -A-L-F-T-A-N, which in full would have read "Halfdan", "Half-Dane".
195
To all intents and purposes the year 1066 marks, or symbolises at least, the end of the viking age.
The second major figure in the 1066 scenario, King Harald Sigurdsson of Norway, was the laft of the great viking sea-kings: the "theunderbolt of the north", as Adam of Bremen called him. Icelandic historians would dub him Hardradi (Norwgian Hardråde), meaning "hard-ruler": Harald the Ruthless. Harald was half-brother to King Olaf Haraldsson, later to be canonised as St Olaf, patron saint of Norway, who ruled Norway from 1014 until his death in battle in 1030. They had the same mother, Queen Asta, and Harald was born in the year in which Olaf was fighting his way to the Norwegian throne.
Olaf Haraldsson - Olaf the Stout, as he was called during his lifetime - had been a professional viking since the age of twelve.
Deep in the heart of Ruthenia in Ukraine, exiled king Olaf the Stout saw this political upheaval as a chance to regain his kingdom. Early in 1030 (29 july) he set off along the frozen rivers with a small detachment of 240 troops. The fateful battle took place on a day of high summer at Stiklestad (Stiklarstadir in the saga sources) in the Trondelag in northern Norway.
200
Svein Knutsson's reign proved to be uneasy, unsuccessful and brief. Beside his throne, as the eminence grise, sat his english mother, AElfgifu (Alfifa in the saga sources). Harald Hardradi came to the Norwegian throne in 1047.
As soon as he was fit to travel he was smuggled over the norwegian border to friendly Sweden, and from there he also made his way to Kyiv, at that time and for centuries thereafter the heart and capital of Ukraine. In Kyiv he was given political asylum by the ever-hospitable Yaroslav.
Yaroslav the Wise, Lord of Kyiv, was one of the greatest princes of the viking age, revered as a patron and founder of learning and litarature in Ukraine during his 30-year reign. A shrewd and energetic statesman, he was always careful to foster his ancestral connections with scandinavia and with the varangians. He married a daughter of the King of Sweden; his contacts with the viking kingdoms to the west were obviously close and calculated. At Kyiv he took the young Harald as his fosterling. At Yaroslav's court, Harald met up again with Magnus Olafsson, now heif-apparent to the norwegian throne - two future kings of Norway learning the crafts of kingship at the Ukrainian court. At Kyiv, too, Harald would have seen the foundations being laid by Yaroslav of Ukraine's first cathedral, the superb minster of St Sophia which has so miraculously survived the troubled centuries.
Harald stayed with Yaroslav for three years, being taught the art of warfare as an officer in the Ukrainian army, taking part in various military campaigns. Yaroslav must have recognised in him the steelines and ambition which would earn him his nickname of Hardradi, and promised to give him one of his daughters, Ellisif/Elizabeth, in marriage. But first, to complete his education, he sent him down the Dnipro to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, with a personal command of five hundred hand-picked warriors, to join the elite bodyguard of the emperor, the feared and famous varangian guard.
Viking had been fighting in the service of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople throughout the 10th century. The word for them, Varangians (Vaeringjar), seems to derive from the old norse word var, meaning "pledge". They were men pledged to stand together and support one another loyally. They continued as a mainly scandinavian company until after the Norman conquest of 1066. Harald spent about 10 years in the imperial army, incognito for most of the time according to some sources, serving under three successive emperors. He may also have visited Jerusalem as captain of a special military escort for pilgrims or craftsmen bound for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. His career prospered, and he was promoted to the rank of commander with the title of spatharokanditates, the third level in the hierarchy of the imperial court. He secretly salted away in Kyiv, in Yaroslav's safe-keeping, all the immense plunder he took on his various campaigns.
The greek source says that when Harald asked the new emperor, Constantine Monomachus (1042-5), Zoe's 4th husband, for permission to return to Norway, it was refused.
Safelt into the freedom of the Black Sea with a hard-knit troop of battle-seasoned varangians, Harald Hardradi now headed for home: first to Kyiv to claim from Yaroslav the hand of his daughter Ellisif/Elizabeth and his accumulated loot, and then to Norway to claim a share at least of the throne from his nephew, Magnus the Good - if necessary by force. Harald returned to the northern arena from Constantinople in 1045.
Read more on www.Historiebloggen.nu
9
They penetrated the depths of Ukraine, founding city-states like Kyiv, testing slavonic trade routes along formidabler rivers like the Dnipro, opening up the route to Asia to exploit the exotic markets of Persia and China.
The orb of the world, which mankind inhabits, is riven by many fjords, so that great seas run into the land from the Outer Ocean. Thus, it is known that a great sea goes in through Nörvasund (Straits of Gibraltar) all the way to the land of Jerusalem. From that same sea a long bight stretches towards the north-east, called the Black Sea, which divides the three continents of the earth, to the east lies Asia, to the west lies Europe (which some call Aeneas-land), but to the north of the Black Sea lies Ruthenia (Ukraine)...
From the range of mountains which lie to the north beyond the edge of human habitation, there runs a river properly called the Tanais (Don), which flows into the Black Sea. In Asia to the east of the Tanais there was a land called Asaland or Asaheimur (Land of the AEsir); its chief city was called Asgardur (Home of the AEsir). That city was ruled by a chieftan named Odin, and it was a great centre for sacrifices...
Thor was the Lord Protector of the Universe, guarding the world with his mighty hammer Mjöllnir against the menace of the Giants (Peoples of Giants in 6th century near Kyiv and river Dnipro).
18
After death, the ship was supposed to carry the dead man to the afterworld, either as a funeral pyre as described by the arab traveller Ibn Fadlan in 922.
21
Viking religion, the Asatru (Belief in the AEsir).
29
Red and white woven cloth (vadmal). A four-oared sailing dinghy (faering).
69
Throughout the viking age, one historic island can claim to have been the true centre of the viking world - the Baltic island of Gotland, off the east coast of Sweden. Although it is now a province of Sweden, it has always prided itself on its independence of view and action. Gotland lay at the crossroads of the world; it was the trade cruciable of the Baltic, the entrepot of east-west commerce.
A little whetstone was found in Gotland on the farm of Timans in the parish of Roma, dating from the late 10th century. It has a brief runic inscription scratched on it. It was not meant to be momentous message for posterity - frankly, it was just a doodle done in an idle moment; but what is says is momentous enough: "Ormiga: Ulfuair: krikiaR: iaursaliR: islat: serklat." Transliterated, it reads: "Ormiga, Ulfar: Greece, Jerusalem, Iceland, Serkland." Which means, in effect, "Ormiga and Ulfar have been to Greece (the Byzantine Empire), to Jerusalem, to Iceland, and to the land of the Saracens (probably Baghdad).
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In the Historical Museum in Visby there is a beautifully ornamented bronze wind-vane for a ship's mast, dated to around 1000, and decorated with a writhing serpent in what the Norwgians call the Ringerike style; and a lion stands on the top edge.
There is some archeological evidence that Visby itself dates back to a 10th century Viking Age settlement, flanked to north and south by two satellite settlements at Gustavsvik and Kopparsvik whose grave-fields have been extensively excavated; and, more recently, indications of a port or lagoon-haven have been recognised at Pavik, near Västergarn on the west coast, and at Bogevik, near Slite, on the east coast.
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Anundshög, just outside Västerås. This Anund has been associated with a shadowy King Braut-Önund. Not yet been excavated.
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A memorial stone at a bridge at Broby (Bridge Farm) in Täby on the Viking Road was ercted as part of a set in memory of a farmer named Östen by his wife Estrid: Es sotti IorsaliR ok andathis uppi i Grikkium - "He visited Jerusalem and died out in Greece".
Another stone was found at Pilsgård, on the island of Gotland, in association with the harbour-lagoon at Bogevik, near Slite. The runes are now blurred, but it is a memorial stone erected by four brothers in memory of a fifth brother, Hrafh, who had died far away in Ukraine: "Hegbjörn and his brothers Rödvisl, Östen and Amund had this stone painted in colours and erected; they have also raised stones for Hrafn south of Rufstein. They went far into Aifur."
"They went far into Aifur". The significance of that sentence is that "Aifur" was the Norse name given to one of the frightening cataracts of the river Dnipro in Ukraine, where boats had either to shoot the rapids or be dragged overland to bypass them. It is a vivid glimpse of a family of five Gotland brothers on the make, carrying iron and furs and slaves, no doubt, to the markets of the East where they could exchange them for Arabic silver to be banked in buried caches at home on Gotland. One of them, Hrafn, died in the boulder-strewn torrents of the Dnipro; and the Pilsgård Stone immortalises not just him but the whole opening-up of the vast Ukrainian hinterland by those Viking merchant adventurers fron Gotland.
Ibn Fadlan wrote an account of his mission, called a Risala, in which he described his contacts with a tribe of armed merchants called Rus/Rutheni. One of the ceremonies Ibn Fadlan witnessed at first was a ship-cremation of a rich and important member of the tribe, which was proceeded by some gruesome rituals of sacrifice for which no parallels can be found in viking literature.
Archeologists tend to argue that vikings effect on what was fundamentally a Slav state, Ruthenia, which had been in existence for centuries before Scandinavian traders penetradeted Ukraine, was negligible.
The present inhabitants of Novgorod are descended from the varangian race, but earlier they were Slavs.
In the sagas, Ukraine was known as "Greater Sweden".
A confederation of tribes hade formed in the 6th century in the area of the middle Dnipro, and one of the eastern Chronicles mentions a "People of Giants". This "People of Giants" formed, so to speak, the nucleus of the future Kyiv state.
Vikings were attracted by the glamour of the Kyiv state, because the Kyiv state traded actively with Constantinople (Byzantium, Byzantine Empire). If they (vikings) wanted to join the trade convoys down the Dnipro to the Black Sea and Constantinople they had to apply for permission from the authorities in Kyiv. Permission to join these convoys from Kyiv depended entirely on the ruler of Kyiv at the time.
It is in the Hermitage that the classic conflict between hazy saga evidence and hard archeological fact begins to resolve itself. There is a cornucopia of viking finds to be seen in the Hermitage: a rune-stick (runakefl) like the Bergen stick. It has been dated to the first half of the 9th century.
In the icelandic sagas Staraja ladoga was called Aldeigjuborg, and is frequently mentioned as a target for attack or a convienent staging post on the way to Kyiv or Kyivan Rus.
There is no doubt that Staraja Ladoga was originally a Slav settlement, founded by some finno-ugrian tribe in the middle of the 8th century - a century before any traces of a viking presence. The earliest layers of house remains are non-Scandinavian, and dr.Anatoly Kirpichnikov of Leningrad thought they were built by southern Slav peoples moving northwards from the Novgorod area to develop trade with the Baltic. Staraja Ladoga provided easy access to the Gulf of Finland along the river Neva.
The vikings were simply immigrants who wanted to move in on Staraya Ladoga's growing prosperity; they came there, according to the archeological record, in the middle of the 9th century. Dr. Kirpichnikov thought that the legend of the calling-in of Rurik and his brothers might well have a kernel of historical truth, except that the settlement was not actually founded by Rurik.
Staraya Ladoga is the only early settlement in Eastern lands, which has a distinct viking cemetery; its dated to the second half of the century. This thesis is borne out by excavations at the 15th-century-fortress of Staraya Ladoga, which dr. Kirpichnikov himself carried out from 1972-6. He discovered that there were two earlier sets of walls underlying the present walls, and that the earliest dated back to the viking period of the late 9th century. The site has now been handsomely restored, and there are replicas of the major finds in an excellent little local museum. But although the building of the first walls corresponds roughly with the date of Rurik's alleged arrival, the finds of pottery and weaponry and jewellery associated with it are decidedly not Scandinavian - they are all Slav/Slavonic.
The stone fort at Staraya Ladoga was built by Rurik's successor, a man with the hybrid viking-slav name of count Oleg. By this time, however, the scandinavians in staraya ladoga had become almost completely Slavicised themselves - hence the lack of any specifically viking artefacts.
Excavations at Gnizdovo near Smolensk, with its 5000 burial mounds, show that many of the artefacts are of a hybrid culture; the proportion of "pure" scandinavian objects is very small. The number of scandinavian graves in the cemeteries constitutes only about 5%.
Overall, however, Anne Stalsberg's conclusions were very close to the position of most leading scholars: that the grave goods and other finds are evidence of normally peaceful relations between the viking incomers and the native population of Slavs. She found no evidence of scandinavians as invaders who created a state where there had been none before, and their (vikings') role in this was probably not as critical as the later literary sources would suggest.
The archaeological evidence from Novgorod, the second city said to have been founded by Rurik, is less clear-cut than that of Staraya Ladoga, but it may well have followed a similar pattern of Slav settlement and temporary viking takeover.
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Traders would congregate in Kyiv in June, having waited for the spring floods to start to subside, and then set sail in huge convoys to face the perils of the voyage together. We cad read about these cataracts in a book titled De Administrando Imperio, written around 950 by no less a person than the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The emperor gave the names by which the individual cataracts were known: Essupi (Gulper), Gelandri (Yeller), Leanti (Seether), Strukun (Courser) and Aifur (Ferocious), the cataract recorded on the Pilsgård rune stone on Gotland in memory of at least one gotlandish trader who died in the fearsome rapids of the Dnipro.
Suddenly, in the year 907, Oleg is said to have swept down the Dnipro with a huge fleet and over the Black Sea. The fifteen envoys of Oleg, Great prince of Kyiv: "We the Rutheni - Karli, Ingjald, Farulf, Vermund, Hrodleif...".
The norsemen called Constantinople Mikligardur, the Great City. Original name was Bizantium. The Vikings came here in their hundreds, perhaps even thousands, all drawn by the same things: money and power. And yet, as in so many other places, the vikings left remarkably few traces of their substantial presence in Constantinople.
In Hagia Sophia, build 537 by emperor Justinian, in the 1967 the great swedish scholar professor Sven B.F. Jansson, one of the world's leading authorities on runic inscriptions, recognised one casual graffiti as being runic: -A-L-F-T-A-N, which in full would have read "Halfdan", "Half-Dane".
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To all intents and purposes the year 1066 marks, or symbolises at least, the end of the viking age.
The second major figure in the 1066 scenario, King Harald Sigurdsson of Norway, was the laft of the great viking sea-kings: the "theunderbolt of the north", as Adam of Bremen called him. Icelandic historians would dub him Hardradi (Norwgian Hardråde), meaning "hard-ruler": Harald the Ruthless. Harald was half-brother to King Olaf Haraldsson, later to be canonised as St Olaf, patron saint of Norway, who ruled Norway from 1014 until his death in battle in 1030. They had the same mother, Queen Asta, and Harald was born in the year in which Olaf was fighting his way to the Norwegian throne.
Olaf Haraldsson - Olaf the Stout, as he was called during his lifetime - had been a professional viking since the age of twelve.
Deep in the heart of Ruthenia in Ukraine, exiled king Olaf the Stout saw this political upheaval as a chance to regain his kingdom. Early in 1030 (29 july) he set off along the frozen rivers with a small detachment of 240 troops. The fateful battle took place on a day of high summer at Stiklestad (Stiklarstadir in the saga sources) in the Trondelag in northern Norway.
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Svein Knutsson's reign proved to be uneasy, unsuccessful and brief. Beside his throne, as the eminence grise, sat his english mother, AElfgifu (Alfifa in the saga sources). Harald Hardradi came to the Norwegian throne in 1047.
As soon as he was fit to travel he was smuggled over the norwegian border to friendly Sweden, and from there he also made his way to Kyiv, at that time and for centuries thereafter the heart and capital of Ukraine. In Kyiv he was given political asylum by the ever-hospitable Yaroslav.
Yaroslav the Wise, Lord of Kyiv, was one of the greatest princes of the viking age, revered as a patron and founder of learning and litarature in Ukraine during his 30-year reign. A shrewd and energetic statesman, he was always careful to foster his ancestral connections with scandinavia and with the varangians. He married a daughter of the King of Sweden; his contacts with the viking kingdoms to the west were obviously close and calculated. At Kyiv he took the young Harald as his fosterling. At Yaroslav's court, Harald met up again with Magnus Olafsson, now heif-apparent to the norwegian throne - two future kings of Norway learning the crafts of kingship at the Ukrainian court. At Kyiv, too, Harald would have seen the foundations being laid by Yaroslav of Ukraine's first cathedral, the superb minster of St Sophia which has so miraculously survived the troubled centuries.
Harald stayed with Yaroslav for three years, being taught the art of warfare as an officer in the Ukrainian army, taking part in various military campaigns. Yaroslav must have recognised in him the steelines and ambition which would earn him his nickname of Hardradi, and promised to give him one of his daughters, Ellisif/Elizabeth, in marriage. But first, to complete his education, he sent him down the Dnipro to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, with a personal command of five hundred hand-picked warriors, to join the elite bodyguard of the emperor, the feared and famous varangian guard.
Viking had been fighting in the service of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople throughout the 10th century. The word for them, Varangians (Vaeringjar), seems to derive from the old norse word var, meaning "pledge". They were men pledged to stand together and support one another loyally. They continued as a mainly scandinavian company until after the Norman conquest of 1066. Harald spent about 10 years in the imperial army, incognito for most of the time according to some sources, serving under three successive emperors. He may also have visited Jerusalem as captain of a special military escort for pilgrims or craftsmen bound for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. His career prospered, and he was promoted to the rank of commander with the title of spatharokanditates, the third level in the hierarchy of the imperial court. He secretly salted away in Kyiv, in Yaroslav's safe-keeping, all the immense plunder he took on his various campaigns.
The greek source says that when Harald asked the new emperor, Constantine Monomachus (1042-5), Zoe's 4th husband, for permission to return to Norway, it was refused.
Safelt into the freedom of the Black Sea with a hard-knit troop of battle-seasoned varangians, Harald Hardradi now headed for home: first to Kyiv to claim from Yaroslav the hand of his daughter Ellisif/Elizabeth and his accumulated loot, and then to Norway to claim a share at least of the throne from his nephew, Magnus the Good - if necessary by force. Harald returned to the northern arena from Constantinople in 1045.
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