Папското освещаване на славянските книги през 868 г.: факти и хипотези [Papal Consecration of Slavic Books in 868: Facts and Hypotheses]

Papal Consecration of Slavic Books in 868: Facts and Hypotheses Krassimir Stantchev (Third University of Rome) Abstract: This article analyzes the available evidence about Pope Adrian II’s consecration of Slavic books in 868, which in effect consecrated the Glagolitic alphabet created by Constantine-Cyril. The evidence, found in the Slavonic Lives of St. Cyril (VC) and St. Methodius (VM), is absent from both the Latin Italian legend and the few other extant documentary sources from that period. The author argues that the description of the event in VC, with its rich topographic and prosopographical details, must have been written by a well-informed eyewitness, and should therefore be considered more credible. By contrast, the narrative in VM features prosopographical inaccuracies, abbreviations, contaminations, and creative additions, whose role most probably was to protect Methodius from possible charges. Specifically, the author supports the view that the Epistle of Adrian II in VM is not a paraphrase of an actual document, but a compositional element devised by the hagiographer. In the final analysis, while the exact nature of the papal blessing remains unclear, it is beyond doubt that, without this event—and the better documented papal elevation of Methodius to the rank of Moravian (arch)bishop—the further history of the Slavonic alphabet would have followed a very different trajectory.