Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.34075/cs.56.4.7
The cult of St. Nicholas – changes through history and role in building the contemporary identity of Dubrovnik
Vinicije B. Lupis
orcid.org/0000-0001-8516-9312
; Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Dubrovnik Regional Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Nikolina Hazdovac Bajić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6469-8290
; Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Dubrovnik Regional Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
The particularity of the Croatian national identity, seen through cultural and religious heritage, is in its diversity that reflects the Croatian centuries-old reality and various cultural and political influences. The position at the crossroads of civilizations and various influences have largely determined the nature of the Croatian national and religious heritage, which is an integral part of the Western European cultural circle. Dubrovnik is recognizable through its symbol - the Armenian saint St. Vlaho (Blasius), but also as the southernmost city with the urban secular cult of the knight Orlando. After the Croatian War of Independence, Dubrovnik gained the third cult along with two existing ones – the cult of St. Nicholas. It should be noted that the cult of St. Nicholas was never an important cult during the past of the Dubrovnik Republic and was never on the state list of holidays, but it remained in the domain of professional and family saints. The cult of St. Nicholas from the Byzantine Bari expanded to Ragusium, then part of the Byzantine theme of Upper Dalmatia during the 11th and 12th centuries. Through intensive economic ties with the Italian south, during the Anjou dynasty, it was contaminated with the cult of Nicholas the Traveler and established into a recognizable cult of protector of sailors and travelers. The cult of St. Nicholas on the territory of the Dubrovnik Republic got extremely strong following the conjuncture of maritime affairs during the 15th and 16th centuries, and in the 18th century, which can be seen from the construction of churches, chapels, monasteries, altars and through the naming of sailing ships. St. Nicholas is also an identity symbol of the Dubrovnik diaspora in Kosovo in Janjevo. Today Dubrovnik's community has a very specific notion of St. Nicholas as a symbol, because on that day, 6th of December 1991, the most severe attack on Dubrovnik took place by Serbian-Montenegrin aggressors, resulting in numerous human victims and material damage. The aim of this paper is, in an interdisciplinary way - combining historical and sociological perspective, to gain the first scientific insight into the relationship between the concepts of religious symbol, identity and community using the example of the cult of St. Nicholas in Dubrovnik. Research has shown that since 1991 St. Nicholas as a symbol has gained a whole new dimension on a semantic, value, emotional and ritual level. The cult of St. Nicholas thus has become in the modern memory of the city the cult of the patron saint of the Croatian War of Independence veterans. This is a completely unique phenomenon in the development of the cult of St. Nicholas which in this specific community has become an anti-war saint and a saint-defender.
Keywords
St. Nicholas; Dubrovnik; symbol; identity; cult transformation
Hrčak ID:
267257
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2021.
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