Zobor Abbey: Witness to Early Christianity Among Slavs

Abstract

The history of early medieval Central and Eastern Europe is largely terra incognita to ecclesiastic historians in the West. It is widely accepted that Zobor Abbey (near Nitra, southwestern Slovakia) is the oldest monastic establishment in the territory of present-day Slovakia. Its founding dates back to the ninth century, during the early spread of Christianity among the Slavs. Like other monasteries of the period, this abbey served as a centre of knowledge and culture, encompassing liturgy and music. The exploration of music in the first phase of its existence is inseparably connected to its first inhabitants’ liturgical rites and traditions. The hypothesis regarding the establishment of this abbey is based on a legend, although it is generally accepted that this legend (the Legend of King Svätopluk) is based on actual historical events. The use of the Slavic tongue, in early medieval Central and Eastern European liturgy, was representative of a legitimacy and degree of tolerance by the ruling secular and ecclesiastical authorities at the time of Zobor Abbey’s earliest history. The pro-Byzantine Magyar Árpáds supported the use of the Slavic tongue in the liturgy, whether in Byzantine or Latin rite. Zobor Abbey was founded in an age of a society that was bi-ritual, homogenous and tolerant, where Latins and Byzantines co-existed, as Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Zobor Abbey was founded in an age where Latin and Byzantine culture intermingled in society, strategically situated in a time and place where borders and cultures were fluid.