Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.53745/ccp.50.97.2
Were the Augustinian Hermits of st. Jerome in Rijeka Exclusively Latin? Traces of Glagolitic Literacy in the History of the City´s Oldest Monastery
Marko Medved
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Previous historiography has regarded the Augustinian monastery of St. Jerome in Rijeka as a Latin community in terms of language, and as one that used Italian in pastoral care and preaching. However, it can now be concluded that in the life of the Augustinian monks of Rijeka–the oldest male monastery in the city–the Glagolitic script, the Church Slavonic language, and the Croatian language in pastoral work were more prominent than historiography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, shaped by national tensions and struggles over the statehood of Rijeka, has suggested. The presence of translations and transcriptions of fundamental charters in Glagolitic in the Augustinian cartulary indicates that, for the Augustinians of Rijeka, the use of the Croatian language was closely connected with writing in the Glagolitic script. Although the liturgy in the Augustinian church was conducted in Latin, the pastoral activity of the Augustinians in the surrounding and wider region of Rijeka was largely carried out in areas where the Glagolitic tradition was present and in the Croatian language. In addition to Latin as the liturgical language, the Augustinians also used Church Slavonic, especially in the broad hinterland of Rijeka, where many churches were under the control of the Rijeka monastery. The author offers new insights into the relationship between the Augustinians and the Glagolitic printing activity of Bishop Šimun Kožičić Benja, as well as into the role of the Augustinian monastery in the cultural mediation of the Glagolitic script within Central Europe, particularly within the Augustinian provinces to which the Rijeka monks belonged, including those in Moravia. The paper also seeks to explain the presence of the Senj Glagolitic Missal of 1494 in the Rijeka monastery, as well as the prominent role of the Augustinians in the episcopal see of Senj. Although the complex relationship between the Augustinians of Rijeka and the Glagolitic tradition is not yet fully clarified, it can be stated with confidence that Glagolitic culture played a more significant role in the life of the oldest monastic community in the city than has previously been recognized.
Keywords
Rijeka; church and monastery of St. Jerome in Rijeka; Senj Glagolitic Missal (1494); Glagolitic script
Hrčak ID:
350299
URI
Publication date:
23.8.2026.
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