Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 120 (2013): Our Past

Articles

Did Peter Damiani make a mistake?

  • Bożena Diemjaniuk
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2013.120.5-24  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2013-12-30

Abstract

The author poses a hypothesis that Peter Damian did not make a mistake placing the last missionary expedition of Bruno Boniface of Querfurt in Rus and that the missionary activity of a Latin bishop in Vladimir’s country in the beginnings of the 11th century was certainly possible. The author starts with quoting one of the basic sources pertaining to the life and work of Bruno Boniface of Querfurt, mainly The Life of St. Romuald by Peter Damian, written around 1040. In the main part of the article, the author deals with one of the main objections to Damian’s work, that is pointing to Rus as the place of evangelisation mission conducted by Bruno Boniface. In the author’s opinion the allegation that Peter Damian was wrong when he wrote about Rus and the Russian Church being proud of “a very eminent nobleman Boniface” was too hasty. The author claims it was caused by transferring to the 11th century the experiences and the way of thinking of people from later centuries and making use of schemata which sometimes have little in common with the reality of the 11th century. The author refers to historical research on the borders and structure of medieval states. She tries to show that it was a mistake to transfer the Catholic and Russian Orthodox mutual animosity or even enmity into the 11th century. (The following examples discussed by the author testify to a feeling of ecclesial unity of the Russian Church with the Latin Church: bishop’s chirotony on Vladimir’s land mentioned by Bruno of Querfurt in his letter to king Henry, the activity of Latin bishop Reinbern in Rus and the cult of some saints – Clement, the pope as the first patron of Russian state, the adoption by western Christians of the cult of Leontij, the bishop of Rostov)

References

  1. Buczek K., Pierwsze biskupstwa polskie, Kraków 1995. [Google Scholar]
  2. Karwasińska J., Państwo polskie w przekazach hagiograficznych XI i XII wieku, [w:] Początki państwa polskiego. Księga Tysiąclecia, red. K. T y m i e n i e c k i, t. II, Poznań 1962, s. 233-244. [Google Scholar]
  3. Kuczyński S. M., Wschodnia granica państwa polskiego w X wieku (przed rokiem 980), [w:] Początki państwa polskiego. Księga Tysiąclecia, red. K. T y m i e n i e c k i, t. I, Poznań 1962, s. 233-252. [Google Scholar]
  4. Kumor B., Problem jedności Kościoła na Rusi z Kościołem katolickim do końca XII wieku, [w:] Chrystus zwyciężył. Wokół Chrztu Rusi Kijowskiej, red. J. S. Gajek i W. Hryniewicz, Warszawa 1989, s. 45-53. [Google Scholar]
  5. Moczulski L., Narodziny Międzymorza: ukształtowanie ojczyzn, powstanie państw oraz układy geopolityczne wschodniej części Europy w późnej starożytności i we wczesnym średniowieczu, Warszawa 2007, [Google Scholar]
  6. Mironowicz A., Kościół prawosławny w państwie Piastów i Jagiellonów, Białystok 2003. [Google Scholar]
  7. Sahanowicz H., Historia Białorusi. Od czasów najdawniejszych do końca XVIII wieku, tł. H. Łaszkiewicz, Lublin 2001. [Google Scholar]

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.