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Saint Methodius and the archiépiscopal see of Sirmium in Slavonia
Imre Boba
Abstract
The currently held believ th a t Saint Methodius was a bishop of no fixed
residence (chorepisoopus) or th a t he was an archbishop of the realm
known as Moravia is contradicted by all the sources which have re fe rences to his episcopal dignity. Papal documents, letters from the
bishops of the church province of Bavaria, various Church-Slavinic
Vitae, attest that Saint Methodius was fully ordained bishop to a specific
see, of a specific diocese. His title »archiepiskopos Moravos tes Pannonias«, the Church-Slavonic title »Methodius, archbishop of Morava
and of all of Pannonia«, attest th a t he was a residential bishop of the
diocese of »Pannonia orientalis«, defined by the Conversio Bagoarorium
and the letters of Piligrim, bishop of Passau.
Sources also indicate th at Methodius was successor to the see of Saint
Andronicus, Saint Ireneus, both of them in Roman times bishops of
Sirmium. »Grad Morava in Pannonia« attested in sources as the residence of Methodius appears to be a suburb of ancient Sirmium, a Christian settlement th a t has evolved around the grave of Saint Ireneus. The medieval Civitas Sancti Irenei (Szenternye) with the cathedral church of Saint Ireneus attests the continuity of the ancient bishopric through the time of Saint Methodius into the late Middle Ages.
Four churches superimposed on each other have been excavated in
Civitas Sancti Irenei recently by the Serb Academy. The third church,
dated by me for the ninth century, contain only one grave which can
be identified with the burial place of Saint Methodius. The evidence is
based on a description of burial place of Saint Methodius in his Prolozhnoe Zhitie and arguments from historical circumstances. The bones from this grave, now in storage in the USA, should be analyzed witd the C14, method in order to establish the approximate date of the bishop’s death.
Part of the paper is a polemic with objections raised to this identification
by Dr. Vladislav Popovic, the arheolog in charge of the actual excavations.
If we assume that Saint Methodius was an archbishop of Sirmium/Morava and not of a country Morava north of the Danube, than all the references to the involvement of Saint Methodius in the ecçlesiatical affairs of Sclavonia (an area south of the Drava) and in Dalmatian Croatia have to be taken at face value.
Sventoplk and Saint Constantine were involved in the history of Illyricum and Dalmatia. This is attested by Presbyter of Dioclea. Recent
research compels to take his information seriously. The contacts between Sventoplk and the Croats of Dalmatia are attested also in Papal
correspondence, as is the influence of saint Methodius. Theodosius,
bishop of Nin and later archbishop of Split, should be considered a
successor to the function of Saint Methodius after the liquidation of
the archiépiscopal see of Sirmium/Morava.
Keywords
St. Methodius; archiépiscopal see; Sirmium; Slavonia
Hrčak ID:
89764
URI
Publication date:
16.12.1985.
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