Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 95 No. 4, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.95.4.7
Wedding Rites in Surviving Croatian Glagolitic Manuscripts from the 14th to 16th Centuries
Jozo Vela
orcid.org/0009-0002-3080-6083
; Old Church Slavonic Institute – Dictionary of the Croatian Redaction of Church Slavonic, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper discusses texts depicting the rite of the Christian marriage sacrament in surviving liturgical manuscripts written in Glagolitic script and Croatian Church Slavonic, dating from the last quarter of the 14th to the first quarter of the 16th century. The texts cited as witnesses to Glagolitic wedding rites are highly diverse Therefore, in order to deliver general statements about the characteristics of Glagolitic weddings, this paper provides (i) an overview of the core manuscript knowledge, such as when they were created and where they were used, as well as (ii) an account of the structure of the rite, i e, the dynamics of the ritual wedding celebration. Each rite serves as a testimony in itself to how a wedding might have taken place in a local church with which its use can be associated In presenting the elements and dynamics of each ritual celebration, an attempt is made to draw attention to the similarities and differences with other surviving rites, as well as to establish a connection with the wedding liturgy documented in various West Latin, i e, Eastern (Byzantine) manuscripts. In the second part of the paper, several general findings are put forward on the basis of the material presented above. The fundamental determinant of Glagolitic weddings is the non-uniformity of ritual practice. This is interpreted against the background of the transmission methods of Croatian Glagolitic texts in general, the so-called horizontal transmission of the text. Given that in the horizontal transmission of the text certain parts of the ritual celebration, certain gestures and words become almost independent, the core patterns of the development of the wedding liturgy in the West can be discerned in the preserved rites. This includes elements of the original rites that were intended for the celebration of marriage at home, at the church door and within the church. There are only a few features that can be applied to Glagolitic wedding ceremonies in general. One of them, for example, is the Mass of the Holy Trinity Benedicta sit. However, some features are very revealing. The fact that the wedding ceremony is regularly titled Blessing of the Ring indicates that the Glagolites understood the wedding not as a blessing of the bride and groom, but rather as a blessing of the wedding ring. Another notable feature that unites many wedding ceremonies is the oath. The paper provides the first documentation of this distinct feature of Croatian weddings in pre-Tridentine ceremonies.
Keywords
Croatian Church Slavonic; Glagolitic manuscripts; Church Slavonic liturgy; wedding rites; Blessing of the Ring
Hrčak ID:
343738
URI
Publication date:
23.1.2026.
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