IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 1004: Bishops, Popes, and Saints: Christian Churches in the North Western Balkans from Gregory the Great to the 'Bosnian Church', 6th-15th Centuries
Wednesday 6 July 2016, 09.00-10.30
Organiser: | Daniel Syrbe, Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum für Kultur & Geschichte Ostmitteleuropas e.V. (GWZO), Universität Leipzig |
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Moderator/Chair: | Nadine Ulrike Holzmeier, Historisches Institut, FernUniversität Hagen |
Paper 1004-a | Gregory the Great: Writing Letters to the Bishops of Dalmatia and Illyricum (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy |
Paper 1004-b | St Gregory: The Patron Saint of Bosnia (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Social History |
Abstract | In Antiquity and the Middle Ages the North Western Balkans with the Dalmatian coast and its hinterland formed a contact zone of the Latin West and the Greek East of Europe. This situation also had consequences for the development of Christianity in the region, which was influenced by the Western, Roman 'catholic' as well as the Eastern, Constantinopolitanian 'orthodox' church. This session explores the development of Christianity in this area, focussing on the mountainous inland areas, which in Late Antiquity belonged to the various dioceses of the Roman province Dalmatia, later becoming part of different Slavic principalities, and developing into the Bosnian banate from the mid-12th century onwards. Thematically emphasis will be on the development of church structures and hierarchies, saints's cults, and relations of the regional church to the Latin west and the Greek east. Abstract to paper a: The letters of Gregory the Great as a source corpus are of central importance regarding the relations of the Bishop of Rome to the bishoprics of the former Roman world, which at the end of the 6th century to the beginning of 7th century had undergone far-reaching transformations. Focussing on the area of Dalmatia and Illyricum, this paper explores the very different lines of conflict Gregory was confronted with and traces how different political players in this area responded to Gregory's attempts to centralise ecclesiastical authority on the see of Rome. |