Fruits of Devotion

Slavic Medieval Heritage

An Exhibit of the Hilandar Research Library

September 6 - December 30, 2011
Thompson Library Gallery

These manuscripts are fruits of devotion. They were written out of devotion. They were used with devotion. They were preserved in Hilandar Monastery out of devotion. And, I can testify to this as an eyewitness, they were microfilmed with devotion…

Father Mitrofan of Hilandar Monastery on 2 December 1978; Dedication of the “Hilandar Room” (308 Thompson Library)

The medieval Slavic manuscript tradition began around the year 860, when Konstantin the Philosopher (canonized as St. Cyril) created a unique alphabet for the Slavs as a means of encouraging their conversion to Christianity. This alphabet became known as Glagolitic. In its original form, it was used by all the Slavs, to one degree or another, until the year 1200.

In 1248, Pope Innocent IV gave permission for limited and restricted use of this alphabet and the Slavonic language in the Roman rite. This Glagolitic, of later and somewhat simplified form, continued to be used by certain Roman Catholic monks in parts of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slovenia, particularly in the 13th-16th centuries.

Another alphabet, one based on Greek, began to be used almost from the beginning of Slavic literacy, especially by the East and South Slavs. This alphabet came to be known as Cyrillic. It was easier to learn and could be written faster. Those Slavs who were converted to Christianity primarily through Byzantium continued to create, copy, and use Cyrillic manuscripts well into the 19th century.

Over time, due to fires and natural disasters, conflicts and wars, as well as attrition, many manuscripts and other cultural treasures of Slavic Eastern Christianity were lost. Those that remain, together with a shared heritage of alphabets, literature, religious practice, iconography, music, architecture, among other, unite many of the Slavic peoples and nations.

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the Hilandar Research Library and on the anniversary of my 40th year of preservation and research of medieval Slavic manuscripts,

I am pleased to exhibit and share many cultural treasures of this heritage.

Predrag Matejic, Curator

The Hilandar Research Library is named for Hilandar Monastery (Mount Athos, Greece) and its monks, who in late 1969 invited Ohio State to microfilm their manuscripts with a goal to not only preserve their intellectual content, but make them truly accessible to students and scholars. The goal then became to gather, especially in microform, as many Slavic Cyrillic manuscripts as possible in order to also preserve and make this millennium-old shared cultural heritage accessible. In addition to the microforms and many facsimiles, the Hilandar Research Library has several original manuscripts and early Cyrillic printed books, as well as icons and other artifacts of Slavo-Byzantine culture.