The Western vector of the Cyrillo-Methodian Slavdom and Rus' in the 10^th century

The author defines the CyriUo-Methodian Slavdom as a community of St. Cyril and St. Methodius's followers and describes the holy brothers' heritage in the Czech lands in the 10th century, with the focus on the relationships between the CyriUo-Methodian Slavonic clergy of Latin and Greek rites and their Roman, German and Czech brethren. The author also discusses the use of the Slav Apostles' authority for shaping dynastic and state ideology of the first Czech Przemyslide princes as well as the interactions between the CyriUo-Methodian and local traditions within the early medieval Czech literature. This task is carried out in association with a particular topic of an early meeting between the CyriUo-Methodian tradition and Rus', under which the author means not the Old Rus' (Kievan) state, but one of the communities that participated in its formation in the 10th century and shared its name with the state. The Christianised merchants' Rus as identified by Eastern Slavs used the Slavonic argo in its professional activities and could interact in the Czech lands, especially in Prague, with the followers of Slavonic church traditions ascending to St. Cyril and St. Methodius. The above mentioned approach enables to partially fill the long caesura in the history of the CyriLLo-Methodian tradition outside the medieval Bulgaria. The development of the Slavonic literature, church language and service in Czech, Croatian, Hungarian and Poland is usually considered retrospectively against the background of anti-Slavonic and anti-Orthodox polemics and mutual invectives, which followed the split between the Eastern and Western churches in the middle of the 11th century. Though Limited in sources, the complex research of the CyriUo-Methodian Slavdom of the above mentioned lands in the 10th century can shed additional light upon this most important segment of the European Christian culture of the early Middle Ages and its connections with Old Rus' before the official adoption of the Christianity.

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