Peter Žeňuch: Duchovné dedičstvo slovanského Východu na Západe: cyrilské pamiatky z východného Slovenska

 

DOI 10.17846/pdjkss.2026.9-42

 

Prof. PhDr. Peter Žeňuch, DrSc., Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave (Bratislava, Slovakia)

 

The Spiritual Heritage of the Slavic East in the West: Cyrillic Manuscripts from Eastern Slovakia

 

Abstract

This study examines the Cyrillic literary tradition and its cultural and historical significance within the context of the historic Mukachevo Eparchy, particularly in eastern Slovakia. The historic Mukachevo Eparchy served as a prominent unifying element of the Greek Catholic Byzantine-Slavic tradition in the broader Subcarpathian-Rus region, which has been linguistically and ethnically diverse since its inception. However, the common confessional and cultural character of its inhabitants was – and still is – liturgical Church Slavonic and, traditionally, the Cyrillic script; yet their use cannot be automatically equated with a specific ethnic identity. Attention is focused on the processes of natural adaptation of Church Slavonic in light of local linguistic awareness, which is also reflected in Cyrillic texts. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that the local literary tradition developed through contact with various linguistic and cultural environments and simultaneously reflected Latin cultural influences. The main objective of the study is to document Cyrillic manuscript artifacts preserved in or originally associated with eastern Slovakia. Field and archival research conducted between 2000 and 2025 yielded extensive documentary material covering both liturgical and non-liturgical texts, particularly Gospel books, Apostles’ Books, homilies, catechetical and other educational texts, as well as collections of paraliturgical hymns. At the same time, the study highlights the challenges associated not only with comprehensive cataloguing but also with the current location of certain Cyrillic artifacts that were successfully documented during the field research. The Cyrillic manuscript tradition is presented in this study as a significant part of Slovakia’s cultural heritage and, at the same time, as a testament to the long-standing linguistic, cultural, and religious interaction among the peoples of the Carpathian region.

 

Keywords

Cyrillic manuscript tradition; the historic Mukachevo Eparchy; Church Slavonic; Eastern Slovakia; cultural heritage

 

How to cite this article

ŽEŇUCH, Peter, (2026). Duchovné dedičstvo slovanského Východu na Západe: cyrilské pamiatky z východného Slovenska. In: Žeňuchová Šašerina, Svetlana (ed.). Písomné dedičstvo, jazyk a kultúrna pamäť v slovanskom svete. Nitra: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, s. 9-42. ISBN 978-80-558-2449-9 (tlač), ISBN 978-80-558-2450-5 (online). DOI 10.17846/pdjkss.2026.9-42

 

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

 

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