1.
Libice nad Cidlinou
–
Libice nad Cidlinou is a village in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest settlements in Bohemia, located 5 km southeast of Poděbrady at the confluence of the Cidlina, the population of Libice is 1,314, it is 190 m above sea level, and its total area is 9.95 km². Libice emerged in the 9th century as the fort of the Slavnik family. They were of possible White Croat origin, and their lands were part of White Croatia, archaeological digs begun in the nineteenth century show that the material culture was highly developed by the end of the first millennium AD. Libice began as a castle, and fortifications and the ruins of a church have survived to the present day. In 995 Libice was stormed by Bohemian Duke Boleslav II and the Vršovci clan, Adalbert and Radim survived by taking refuge in land of the Polans under rule of Boleslaw I. St. Adalbert of Prague and Gaudentius memorial St. Adalberts Church Lutheran church Official web site Turek R. Čechy na úsvitě dějin, Praha,1963
Libice nad Cidlinou
–
St. Adalbert's Church
Libice nad Cidlinou
–
Monument to
St. Adalbert (
Czech: Vojtěch) and his brother
Gaudentius (
Czech: Radim) in Libice, Czech Republic
2.
Bohemia
–
Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, after World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945, border regions with sizeable German-speaking minorities of all three Czech lands were joined to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland, in 1990, the name was changed to the Czech Republic, which become a separate state in 1993 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Until 1948, Bohemia was a unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its lands. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria, in the west by Bavaria and in the north by Saxony and Lusatia, in the northeast by Silesia, and in the east by Moravia. In the 2nd century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy, the Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia and the Battle of Mutina. After this, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps, much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied as Boiohaemum. The earliest mention was by Tacitus Germania 28, and later mentions of the name are in Strabo. The name appears to include the tribal name Boi- plus the Germanic element *haimaz home and this Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to the area where King Marobods kingdom was centred, within the Hercynian forest. The Czech name Čechy is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group, the Czechs, Bohemia, like neighbouring Bavaria, is named after the Boii, who were a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, to the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast in Hungaria, were Sarmatian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king Marobodus and he took advantage of the natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. In late classical times and the early Middle Ages, two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni, many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals, other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia. These are precursors of todays Czechs, though the amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves, the first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia. Soon after, from the 630s to 660s, the territory was taken by Samos tribal confederation and his death marked the end of the old Slavonic confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia. Other sources divide the population of Bohemia at this time into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare, Christianity first appeared in the early 9th century, but only became dominant much later, in the 10th or 11th century
Bohemia
–
Karlštejn Castle
Bohemia
–
Historical map with Bohemia proper outlined in pink,
Moravia in yellow, and
Austrian Silesia in orange.
Bohemia
–
The more extreme Hussites became known as
Taborites, after the city of
Tábor that became their center.
Bohemia
–
Bohemia as the heart of
Europa regina, 1570
3.
Poland
–
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Poland
–
Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
–
Flag
Poland
–
Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
–
Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
4.
Prussia
–
Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
Prussia
–
... during the
Renaissance period
Prussia
–
Flag (1892–1918)
Prussia
–
... according to the design of 1702
Prussia
–
Prussian King's Crown (
Hohenzollern Castle Collection)
5.
Kaliningrad Oblast
–
Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of the Russian Federation that is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. As an oblast, its status is equal to each of the other 84 federal subjects. Its administrative center is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg and it is the only Baltic port in the Russian Federation that remains ice-free in winter. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 941,873, the oblast is an exclave so visa-free travel to the main part of Russia is only possible by sea or air. The territory was part of East Prussia. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the territory was annexed by the Soviet Union, following the post-war migration and expulsion of the German-speaking population, the territory was populated with citizens from the Soviet Union. Today, only a few thousand ethnic Germans remain, most of recent immigrants from other parts of the former Soviet Union. Early in the 21st century, the hitherto flagging economy of Kaliningrad Oblast became one of the best performing economies in Russia and this was helped by a low manufacturing tax rate related to its Special Economic Zone status. As of 2006, one in three televisions manufactured in Russia came from Kaliningrad, the territorys population was one of the few in Russia that was expected to show strong growth after the collapse of the USSR. Germany currently places no claims, however it also has not renounced any claims to the possibility of territory reunification. During the Middle Ages, the territory of what is now Kaliningrad Oblast was inhabited by tribes of Old Prussians in the western part, the tribes were divided by the rivers Pregolya and Alna. The Teutonic Knights conquered the region and established a monastic state, on the foundations of a destroyed Prussian settlement known as Tvanksta, the Order founded the city of Königsberg. Germans resettled the territory and assimilated the indigenous Old Prussians, the Lithuanian-inhabited areas became known as Lithuania Minor. Speakers of the old Baltic languages became extinct around the 17th century, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order and established himself as the sovereign of the Duchy of Prussia. The duchy was nominally a fief of the Polish crown and it later merged with the Margravate of Brandenburg. Königsberg was the capital from 1525 until 1701. As the centre of Prussia moved westward, the position of the capital became too peripheral, during the Seven Years War it was occupied by the Russian Empire. The region was reorganized into the Province of East Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, the territory of the Kaliningrad Oblast lies in the northern part of East Prussia
Kaliningrad Oblast
–
Angrapa River, Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast
–
Königsberg Cathedral
Kaliningrad Oblast
–
The former East Prussian town of Cranz as it looked ca. 1900. It is now the resort town of
Zelenogradsk. Before 1945, it was a famous destination for
German artists and
intelligentsia.
6.
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
Orthodox liturgy
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
An
icon of
John the Baptist, 14th century, Macedonia
7.
Canonization
–
Originally, persons were recognized as saints without any formal process. Later, different processes were developed, such as used today in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The first persons honored as saints were the martyrs, pious legends of their deaths were considered affirmations of the truth of their faith in Christ. The Roman Rites Canon of the Mass contains only the names of martyrs, along with that of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, since 1962, that of St. Joseph her spouse. By the fourth century, however, confessors—people who had confessed their faith not by dying but by word, examples of such people are Saint Hilarion and Saint Ephrem the Syrian in the East, and Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Hilary of Poitiers in the West. Their names were inserted in the diptychs, the lists of saints venerated in the liturgy. Since the witness of their lives was not as unequivocal as that of the martyrs and this process is often referred to as local canonization. This approval was required even for veneration of a reputed martyr, and Saint Cyprian recommended that the utmost diligence be observed in investigating the claims of those who were said to have died for the faith. Evidence was sought from the records of the trials or from people who had been present at the trials. Saint Augustine of Hippo tells of the procedure which was followed in his day for the recognition of a martyr, the bishop of the diocese in which the martyrdom took place set up a canonical process for conducting the inquiry with the utmost severity. Other churches still use the older practice, in the Catholic Church, canonization is a decree that allows universal veneration of the saint in the liturgy of the Roman Rite. For permission to venerate merely locally, only beatification is needed, only acceptance of the cultus by the Pope made the cultus universal, because he alone can rule the universal Catholic Church. In the Medieval West, the Apostolic See was asked to intervene in the question of canonizations so as to more authoritative decisions. Swibert by Pope Leo III in 804, thereafter, recourse to the judgment of the Pope was had more frequently. Pope Urban II, Pope Calixtus II, and Pope Eugene III conformed to this discipline, a decree of Pope Alexander III1170 gave the prerogative to the ope thenceforth, so far as the Western Church was concerned. However, the procedure initiated by the decretal of Pope Alexander III was confirmed by a bull of Pope Innocent III issued on the occasion of the canonization of St. Cunegunda in 1200. The bull of Pope Innocent III resulted in increasingly elaborate inquiries to the Apostolic See concerning canonizations and he further regulated both of these acts by issuing his Decreta servanda in beatificatione et canonizatione Sanctorum on 12 March 1642. His work published from 1734-8 governed the proceedings until 1917, the article Beatification and canonization process in 1914 describes the procedures followed until the promulgation of the Codex of 1917
Canonization
–
Icon of
St. Cyprian of Carthage, who urged diligence in the process of canonization
Canonization
–
Pope Pius II canonizes
Catherine of Siena
Canonization
–
The Turkish
atrocities in Bulgaria (1876). On 3 April 2011, Batak massacre victims were canonized as saints.
8.
Pope Sylvester II
–
Pope Sylvester II or Silvester II was Pope from 2 April 999 to his death in 1003. Originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, he was a prolific scholar and he is said to be the first to introduce in Europe the decimal numeral system using Arabic numerals. He was the first French Pope, Gerbert was born about 946 in the town of Belliac, near the present-day commune of Saint-Simon, Cantal, France. Around 963, he entered the monastery of St. Gerald of Aurillac, in the following years, Gerbert studied under the direction of Atto, Bishop of Vic, some 60 km north of Barcelona, and probably also at the nearby Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll. Neither place was under Islamic rule at the time, Borrell II of Barcelona was facing major defeat from the Andalusian powers so he sent a delegation to Córdoba to request a truce. Bishop Atto was part of the delegation met with Al-Hakam II of Cordoba. Atto was mesmerized by the palaces in Cordoba and returned with great respect for the Arabs, Gerbert insisted that Atto teach him more about these Arabic princes who seemed to him more interested in the sciences and literature than warfare. This sparked Gerberts veneration for the Arabs and his passion for mathematics, in 969, Count Borrell II made a pilgrimage to Rome, taking Gerbert with him. There Gerbert met Pope John XIII and the Emperor Otto I, the Pope persuaded Otto I to employ Gerbert as a tutor for his young son, the future Emperor Otto II. Some years later, Otto I gave Gerbert leave to study at the school of Rheims where he was soon appointed a teacher by Archbishop Adalberon. After the death of Otto II in 983, Gerbert became involved in the politics of his time, in 985, with the support of his archbishop, he opposed Lothair of Frances attempt to take the Lorraine from Emperor Otto III by supporting Hugh Capet. Capet became King of France, ending the Carolingian line of Kings in 987, Adalberon died on 23 January 989. Gerbert was a candidate for his succession, but Hugh Capet appointed Arnulf. Arnulf was deposed in 991 for alleged treason against the King, there was so much opposition to Gerberts elevation to the See of Rheims, however, that Pope John XV sent a legate to France who temporarily suspended Gerbert from his episcopal office. Gerbert sought to show that this decree was unlawful, but a further synod in 995 declared Arnulfs deposition invalid, Gerbert now became the teacher of Otto III, and Pope Gregory V, Otto IIIs cousin, appointed him Archbishop of Ravenna in 998. With the Emperors support, he was elected to succeed Gregory V as Pope in 999, Gerbert took the name of Sylvester II, alluding to Pope Sylvester I, the advisor to Emperor Constantine I. Soon after he was elected pope, Sylvester II confirmed the position of his former rival Arnulf as archbishop of Rheims, in 1001, the Roman populace revolted against the Emperor, forcing Otto III and Sylvester II to flee to Ravenna. Otto III led two expeditions to regain control of the city and died on a third expedition in 1002
Pope Sylvester II
–
Pope Sylvester II
Pope Sylvester II
–
Statue of Pope Sylvester II in Aurillac, Auvergne, France.
Pope Sylvester II
–
Pope Sylvester II and the Devil in an illustration of c. 1460.
Pope Sylvester II
–
Reconstructed
Ancient Roman Abacus.
9.
Shrine
–
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which offerings are made is called an altar. Shrines can be found in various settings, such as churches, temples, cemeteries, or in the home, a shrine may become a focus of a cult image. Many shrines are located buildings and in the temples designed specifically for worship, such as a church in Christianity. A shrine here is usually the centre of attention in the building, in such cases, adherents of the faith assemble within the building in order to venerate the deity at the shrine. In classical temple architecture, the shrine may be synonymous with the cella, historically, in Hinduism, Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, and also in modern faiths, such as Neopaganism, a shrine can commonly be found within the home or shop. This shrine is usually a structure or a setup of pictures and figurines dedicated to a deity that is part of the official religion. Small household shrines are common among the Chinese and people from South and Southeast Asia, whether Hindu. Usually a small lamp and small offerings are kept daily by the shrine, Buddhist household shrines must be on a shelf above the head, Chinese shrines must stand directly on the floor. Small outdoor yard shrines are found at the bottom of many gardens, following various religions, including historically. Shrines are found in most, though not all, religions, Shrines therefore attract the practice of pilgrimage. Shrines are found in many, though not all, forms of Christianity, Roman Catholicism, the largest denomination of Christianity, has many shrines, as do Orthodox Christianity and Anglicanism. For a shrine to be described as national, the approval of the Episcopal Conference is necessary, for it to be described as international, the approval of the Holy See is required. Another use of the shrine in colloquial Catholic terminology is a niche or alcove in most – especially larger – churches used by parishioners when praying privately in the church. They were also called Devotional Altars, since they could look like small Side Altars or bye-altars, Shrines were always centered on some image of Christ or a saint – for instance, a statue, painting, mural or mosaic, and may have had a reredos behind them. However, Mass would not be celebrated at them, they were used to aid or give a visual focus for prayers. Side altars, where Mass could actually be celebrated, were used in a way to shrines by parishioners
Shrine
–
The shrine of the
Hodegetria at the
Assumption Cathedral in Smolensk,
Russia, photographed by
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1912).
Shrine
–
Shrine to
Tin Hau at
Repulse Bay,
Southern District,
Hong Kong.
Shrine
–
The Shrine,
Oil on canvas, by
John William Waterhouse (1895).
Shrine
–
Chinese Taoist household shrine 1850–1860,
Bankfield Museum
10.
Gniezno
–
Gniezno is a city in central-western Poland, some 50 kilometres east of Poznań, with some 70,000 inhabitants. One of the Piast dynastys chief cities, it was mentioned in 10th-century sources, including the Dagome Iudex, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Gniezno is the primate of Poland, making it the countrys ecclesiastical capital. It has belonged since 1999 to the Greater Poland Voivodeship, and is the seat of Gniezno County. There are archaeological traces of settlement since the late Paleolithic. Early Slavonic settlements on the Lech Hill and the Maiden Hill are dated to the 8th century, at the beginning of the 10th century this was the site of several places sacred to the Slavic religion. The ducal stronghold was founded just before AD940 on the Lech Hill, according to the Polish version of legends, Three brothers Lech, Czech and Rus were exploring the wilderness to find a place to settle. Suddenly they saw a hill with an old oak and an eagle on top. Lech said, This white eagle I will adopt as an emblem of my people, and around this oak I will build my stronghold, the other brothers went further on to find a place for their people. Czech went to the South and Rus went to the East and it is here that the Congress of Gniezno took place in the year 1000 AD, during which Bolesław I the Brave, Duke of Poland, received Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. The 10th-century Gniezno Cathedral witnessed royal coronations of Bolesław I in 1024, the cities of Gniezno and nearby Poznań were captured, plundered and destroyed in 1038 by the Bohemian duke Bretislav I, which pushed the next Polish rulers to move the Polish capital to Kraków. The archiepiscopal cathedral was reconstructed by the ruler, Bolesław II the Generous. In the next centuries Gniezno evolved as a seat of the eastern part of Greater Poland. Gniezno was again the site in 1295 and 1300. The city was destroyed again by the Teutonic Knights invasion in 1331, Gniezno was hit by heavy fires in 1515,1613, was destroyed during the Swedish invasion wars of the 17th–18th centuries and by a plague in 1708–1710. All this caused depopulation and economic decline, but the city was revived during the 18th century to become the Gniezno Voivodeship in 1768. Gniezno was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1793 Second Partition of Poland, but because of Kościuszkos defeat at the Battle of Maciejowice he gave up his plan to winter in Bydgoszcz and moved through Toruń and retreated to central Poland. Thus, the Prussians retook it on 7 December 1794, during the Napoleonic Wars there was an uprising against Prussian rule. Gniezno was subsequently governed within Kreis Gnesen of the Grand Duchy of Posen, following the Greater Poland Uprising and the Treaty of Versailles Gniezno became part of the Second Polish Republic
Gniezno
–
Gniezno
Gniezno
–
Statue of
Bolesław I the Brave in Gniezno
Gniezno
Gniezno
–
Panorama of Gniezno. 19th century
11.
Prague
–
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. It is the 14th largest city in the European Union and it is also the historical capital of Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city has a temperate climate, with warm summers and chilly winters. Prague has been a political, cultural, and economic centre of central Europe with waxing and waning fortunes during its history and it was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire. Prague is home to a number of cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence. Main attractions include the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The city has more than ten major museums, along with theatres, galleries, cinemas. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city, also, it is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe. Prague is classified as an Alpha- global city according to GaWC studies, Prague ranked sixth in the Tripadvisor world list of best destinations in 2016. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination, and the city more than 6.4 million international visitors annually. Prague is the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Istanbul, the region was settled as early as the Paleolithic age. In the last century BC, the Celts were slowly driven away by Germanic tribes, around the area where present-day Prague stands, the 2nd century map of Ptolemaios mentioned a Germanic city called Casurgis. In the following century, the Czech tribes built several fortified settlements in the area, most notably in Levý Hradec, Butovice and in the Šárka valley. The construction of what came to be known as the Prague Castle began near the end of the 9th century, the first masonry under Prague Castle dates from the year 885 at the latest. The other prominent Prague fort, the Přemyslid fort Vyšehrad, was founded in the 10th century, Prague Castle is dominated by the cathedral, which was founded in 1344, but completed in the 20th century. The legendary origins of Prague attribute its foundation to the 8th century Czech duchess and prophetess Libuše and her husband, Přemysl, legend says that Libuše came out on a rocky cliff high above the Vltava and prophesied, I see a great city whose glory will touch the stars. She ordered a castle and a town called Praha to be built on the site, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the city was founded as Boihaem in c.1306 BC by an ancient king, Boyya. The region became the seat of the dukes, and later kings of Bohemia, under Roman Emperor Otto II the area became a bishopric in 973
Prague
–
Montage of Prague, clockwise from top: Panorama of
Prague Castle and
Charles Bridge,
Dancing House,
Star Villa,
Old Town Square,
Wenceslas Square,
Wallenstein Palace, Royal Garden at Prague Castle,
St. Vitus Cathedral and
Municipal House.
Prague
–
The mythological princess
Libuše prophesies the glory of Prague.
Prague
–
The
Prague astronomical clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.
Prague
–
A view of one of the bridge towers of the Charles Bridge
12.
Calendar of saints
–
The word feast in this context does not mean a large meal, typically a celebratory one, but instead an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a calendar of saints is called a Menologion, Menologion may also mean a set of icons on which saints are depicted in the order of the dates of their feasts, often made in two panels. As the number of recognized saints increased during Late Antiquity and the first half of the Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. To deal with this increase, some saints were moved to days in some traditions or completely removed. For example, St. Perpetua and Felicity died on 7 March, when the 1969 reform of the Catholic calendar moved him to 28 January, they were moved back to 7 March. Both days can thus be said to be their feast day, the Roman Catholic calendars of saints in their various forms, which list those saints celebrated in the entire church, contains only a selection of the saints for each of its days. A fuller list is found in the Roman Martyrology, and some of the saints there may be celebrated locally, Saint Martin of Tours is said to be the first or at least one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint. The title confessor was used for saints, who had confessed their faith in Christ by their lives rather than by their deaths. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, a broader range of titles was used later, such as, Virgin, Pastor, Bishop, Monk, Priest, Founder, Abbot, Apostle, Doctor of the Church. Pope Pius XII added a common formula for Popes, the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII omitted the common of Apostles, assigning a proper Mass to every feast day of an Apostle. The present Roman Missal has common formulas for the Dedication of Churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martyrs, Pastors, Doctors of the Church, Virgins, some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints days, their works may appear dated as The Feast of Saint Martin. Poets such as John Keats commemorate the importance of The Eve of Saint Agnes, as different Christian jurisdictions parted ways theologically, differing lists of saints began to develop. In the present ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked as solemnities and those who use even earlier forms of the Roman Rite rank feast days as Doubles, Semidoubles, and Simples. See Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite, in the Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts varies from church to church. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are, Great Feasts, middle, each portion of such feasts may also be called feasts as follows, All-Night Vigils, Polyeleos, Great Doxology, Sextuple. There are also distinctions between Simple feasts and Double, in Double Feasts the order of hymns and readings for each feast are rigidly instructed in Typikon, the liturgy book. In the Church of England, there are Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days, Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations. com
Calendar of saints
–
A
medieval manuscript fragment of
Finnish origin, about 1340–60. Utilized by the
Dominican convent at
Turku.
Calendar of saints
–
Excerpt from the Irish
Feastology of Oengus, presenting the entries for 1 and 2 January in the form of quatrains of four six-syllabic lines for each day. In this 16th-century copy (MS G10 at the
National Library of Ireland) we find pairs of two six-syllabic lines combined into bold lines, amended by glosses and notes that were added by later authors.
Calendar of saints
–
A
Welsh calendar of saint days c.1488 - 1498
Calendar of saints
–
Anglican Communion
13.
Patron saint
–
Catholics believe that patron saints, having already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges. Historically, a practice has also occurred in many Islamic lands. With regard to the omnipresence of this belief, the late Martin Lings wrote. Traditionally, it has been understood that the saint of a particular place prays for that places wellbeing and for the health. Saints often become the patrons of places where they were born or had been active, professions sometimes have a patron saint owing to that individual being involved somewhat with it, although some of the connections were tenuous. Lacking such a saint, an occupation would have a patron whose acts or miracles in some way recall the profession and it is, however, generally discouraged in some Protestant branches such as Calvinism, where the practice is considered a form of idolatry. In Islam, the veneration or commemoration and recognition of saints is found in many branches of traditional Sunnism
Patron saint
–
Saint Matthew the Apostle, depicted with an angel, is the patron saint of
Salerno, Italy, bankers and tax collectors
Patron saint
–
A branch of
Saint Honore Cake Shop, a
Hong Kong chain bakery, in Hong Kong.
Saint Honorius (Honoré) is the patron saint of bakers and confectioners.
14.
Hungary
–
Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
Hungary
–
Italian fresco depicting a Hungarian warrior shooting backwards
Hungary
–
Flag
Hungary
–
Hungarian raids in the 10th century
Hungary
–
King
Saint Stephen, the first
King of Hungary, converted the nation to Christianity
15.
Latin language
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin language
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin language
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin language
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin language
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
16.
Saint
–
A saint, also historically known as a hallow, is a term used for a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness to God. Depending on the context and denomination, the term also retains its original Christian meaning, as any believer who is in Christ and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on Earth. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official ecclesiastical declaration, the English word saint comes from the Latin sanctus. The word translated the Greek ἅγιος, which derives from the verb ἁγιάζω, the word ἅγιος appears 229 times in the Greek New Testament, and its English translation 60 times in the corresponding text of the King James Version of the Bible. In the New Testament, saint did not denote the deceased who had recognized as especially holy or emulable. Many religions also use similar concepts to venerate persons worthy of some honor, the anthropologist Lawrence Babb in an article about Sathya Sai Baba asks the question Who is a saint. These saintly figures, he asserts, are the points of spiritual force-fields. They exert powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the lives of others in transforming ways as well. In the Bible, only one person is called a saint, They envied Moses also in the camp. The apostle Paul declared himself to be less than the least of all saints in Ephesians 3,8, in the Catholic Church, a saint is anyone in Heaven, whether recognized on Earth or not. There are many persons that the Church believes to be in Heaven who have not been formally canonized, sometimes the word saint also denotes living Christians. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ, the Catholic Church teaches that it does not make or create saints, but rather recognizes them. Proofs of heroicity required in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed above upon proof of their holiness or likeness to God. On 3 January 993, Pope John XV became the first pope to proclaim a person a saint, on the petition of the German ruler, before that time, the popular cults, or venerations, of saints had been local and spontaneous. Pope John XVIII subsequently permitted a cult of five Polish martyrs, walter of Pontoise was the last person in Western Europe to be canonized by an authority other than the Pope, Hugh de Boves, the Archbishop of Rouen, canonized him in 1153. Thenceforth a decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170 reserved the prerogative of canonization to the Pope, one source claims that there are over 10,000 named saints and beatified people from history, the Roman Martyrology and Orthodox sources, but no definitive head count. Alban Butler published Lives of the Saints in 1756, including a total of 1,486 saints, the latest revision of this book, edited by Rev. Herbert Thurston, SJ and British author Donald Attwater, contains the lives of 2,565 saints. Monsignor Robert Sarno, an official of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See, expressed that it is impossible to give an exact number of saints
Saint
–
In traditional
Christian iconography, saints are often depicted with
halos, a symbol of holiness; note how
Judas Iscariot at the forefront is the only apostle without a halo.
Saint
–
A portrait depicting
Saint Francis of Assisi by the Italian artist
Cimabue (1240-1302)
Saint
–
(
The Ninety-Five Theses)
17.
Bishop of Prague
–
The following is a list of bishops and archbishops of Prague. The bishopric of Prague was established in 973, and elevated to an archbishopric on 30 April 1344, the current Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague is the continual successor of the bishopric established in 973. In addition, the city also has an Orthodox archeparchy, Greek Catholic exarchate, the names are given in Czech, with English or otherwise as suitable. The first Orthodox mission in Czech lands was led by Saints Cyril and Methodius, some time before the East–West Schism, with its centre in Moravia. The current Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church comes from the Czech Orthodox clubs, consequently, the Czechoslovak Church tended towards Protestantism and an Orthodox branch split off. The Prague Archeparchy encompasses the whole of Bohemia, gorazd of Prague 1921–1942 Dorotheus of Prague 1963–1999 Metropolitan Christopher of Prague since 2000 Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic was established in 2006. Ladislav Hučko, since 2003 The Czechoslovak Hussite Church split off from the Roman Catholics in 1920s, initially the church varied between Catholic modernism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism, today it is a Protestant church in principle. The two first Bishops of Prague were also patriarchs, since 1946, the patriarch is a different bishop
Bishop of Prague
–
An aerial view of
St. Vitus Cathedral. The entire cathedral is situated inside the
Prague Castle complex, and is the cathedral of the Archbishops of Prague.
18.
Missionary
–
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to proselytize and/or perform ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development. The word mission originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem, meaning act of sending or mittere, meaning to send. The word was used in light of its usage, in the Latin translation of the Bible. The term is most commonly used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology, a Christian missionary can be defined as one who is to witness across cultures. The Lausanne Congress of 1974, defined the term, related to Christian mission as, Missionaries can be found in many countries around the world. Jesus instructed the apostles to make disciples of all nations and this verse is referred to by Christian missionaries as the Great Commission and inspires missionary work. The New Testament-era missionary outreach of the Christian church from the time of St Paul expanded throughout the Roman Empire and beyond to Persia, in 596, Pope Gregory the Great sent the Gregorian Mission into England. In their turn, Christians from Ireland and from Britain became prominent in converting the inhabitants of central Europe, about the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans started moving into Asia and the Far East. The Portuguese sent missions into Africa and these are some of the most well-known missions in history. While some missions accompanied imperialism and oppression, others were relatively peaceful, contemporary Christian missionaries argue that working for justice forms a constitutive part of preaching the Gospel, and observe the principles of inculturation in their missionary work. Over time, the Vatican gradually established a church structure in the mission areas, often starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic prefectures. The two 9th-century saints Cyril and Methodius had extensive success in central Europe. The Byzantines expanded their work in Ukraine after a mass baptism in Kiev in 988. The Serbian Orthodox Church had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they arrived in the Balkans in the 7th century, Orthodox missionaries also worked successfully among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries, founding the Estonian Orthodox Church. The Russian St. Nicholas of Japan took Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th century, the Russian Orthodox Church also sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th century, including Saint Herman of Alaska, to minister to the Native Americans. Quaker publishers of truth visited Boston and other mid-17th century colonies, the Danish government began the first organized Protestant mission work through its College of Missions, established in 1714. This funded and directed Lutheran missionaries such as Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar, India and he also got to know a slave from the Danish colony in the West Indies. Within thirty years, Moravian missionaries had become active on every continent, and they are famous for their selfless work, living as slaves among the slaves and together with the Native Americans, the Delaware and Cherokee Indian tribes
Missionary
–
Village of Christianized Tapuyos Indians,
Brazil c. 1820
Missionary
–
English missionary
John Williams, active in the
South Pacific
Missionary
–
Jesuits who were martyred by the
Araucanian Indians in Elicura in 1612
Missionary
–
The first recorded baptism in
Alta California.
19.
Baltic peoples
–
One of the features of Baltic languages is the number of conservative or archaic features retained. German medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen in the part of the 11th century CE was the first writer to use the term Baltic in its modern sense to mean the sea of that name. This is the first reference to the Baltic or Barbarian Sea, the Germanics, however, preferred some form of East Sea until after about 1600, when they began to use forms of Baltic Sea. Around 1840 the German nobles of the Governorate of Livonia devised the term Balts to mean themselves and they spoke an exclusive dialect, Baltic German. For all practical purposes that was the Baltic language until 1919, scandinavians begin settling in Western Baltic lands in Lithuania and Latvia during Vendel Age and with interruptions their presence in Baltic lands continued most of Viking Age. In 1845 Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann proposed a language group for Latvian and Lithuanian to be called Baltic. It found some credence among linguists but was not generally adopted until the creation of the Baltic states as part of the settlement of World War I in 1919, estonia and Finland, however, also became counted among the Baltic states in the geopolitical sense. Because the thousands of lakes and swamps in this area contributed to the Balts geographical isolation and it is possible that around 3, 500–2,500 B. C. there was massive migration of peoples representing the Corded Ware culture. They came from the southeast and spread all across Eastern and Central Europe and it is believed that Corded Ware culture peoples were Indo-European ancestors of many Europeans, including Balts. It is thought that those Indo-European newcomers were quite numerous and in the Eastern Baltic assimilated earlier indigenous cultures, over time the new people formed the Baltic peoples and they spread in the area from the Baltic sea in the west to the Volga in the east. This information is summarized and synthesized by Marija Gimbutas in The Balts to obtain a likely proto-Baltic homeland, a possible early reference to a Baltic people occurs in 98 CE, when Tacitus names a tribe living near the Baltic Sea as the Aesti and describes them as amber gatherers. However, it is not clear if the Aesti mentioned by Tacitus were, a Baltic people, or, the Aesti appear to have inhabited the Sambian peninsula (in or near the present Kaliningrad Oblast. Over time, the area of Baltic habitation shrank, due to assimilation by other groups, finally, according to Slavic chronicles of the time, they warred with Slavs, and perhaps, were defeated and assimilated some time in the 11th to 13th centuries. Balts became differentiated into Western and Eastern Balts in the late centuries BCE, the eastern Baltic region was inhabited by ancestors of the Western Balts, Brus/Prūsa, Sudovians/Jotvingians, Scalvians, Nadruvians, and Curonians. The Eastern Balts, including the hypothesised Dniepr Balts, were living in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, many other Eastern and Southern Balts either assimilated with other Balts, or Slavs in the 4th–7th centuries and were gradually slavicized. Gradually Old Prussians became Germanized or some Lithuanized during period from the 15th to the 17th centuries, the cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern countries of Latvia and Lithuania. Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinct Western Baltic languages and it is more distantly related to the surviving Eastern Baltic languages, Lithuanian and Latvian. Compare the Prussian word seme, the Latvian zeme, the Lithuanian žemė, Old Prussian contained a few borrowings specifically from Gothic and even North Germanic
Baltic peoples
–
Map of eastern Europe in 3-4th century AD with archeological cultures identified as Baltic-speaking in purple. Their area extended from the Baltic Sea to modern Moscow.
20.
Old Prussians
–
Prussians may also refer to citizens of the former German state Prussia. Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians refers to the peoples from a cluster of Baltic tribes that inhabited the region of Prussia. This region became the core of the state of Prussia. It was located on the shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. The people spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and followed pagan Prussian mythology, during the 13th century, the Old Prussians were conquered by the Teutonic Knights. The former German state of Prussia took its name from the Baltic Prussians, the Teutonic Knights and their troops transferred Prussians from southern Prussia to northern Prussia. Many Old Prussians were also killed in crusades requested by Poland, many were also assimilated and converted to Christianity. The old Prussian language was extinct by the 17th or early 18th century, many Old Prussians emigrated due to Teutonic crusades. Old Prussians, who emigrated to surrounding areas, later returned, the land of the Old Prussians was larger before the arrival of Polans consisting of central and southern East Prussia and West Prussia. After 1945, the territory was equivalent to the areas of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, the Kaliningrad Oblast. The names of the Baltic Prussian tribes all reflected the theme of landscape, most of the names were based on water, an understandable convention in a land dotted with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps. To the south, the terrain runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnieper River, the original pre-Baltic settlers generally named their settlements after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled. The clan or tribal entities into which they were organized then took the name of the settlement and this root is perhaps the one used in the very name of Prusa, for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer. In Tacitus Germania, the Lugii Buri are mentioned living within the range of the Germans. Lugi may descend from Pokornys *leug-, black, swamp, while Buri is perhaps the Prussian root, the name of Pameddi tribe is derived from the words pa and meddin or meddu. Nadruvia may be a compound of the words na and drawē or nad, the name of the Bartians, a Prussian tribe, and the name of the Bārta river in Latvia are possibly cognates. In the 2nd century AD, the geographer Claudius Ptolemy listed some Borusci living in European Sarmatia and his map is very confused in that region, but the Borusci seem further east than the Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti, recorded by Tacitus, were 450 years later recorded by Jordanes as part of the Gothic Empire, folk etymology led to the belief that each Prussian tribe was named after a tribal leader or his wife, such as the mythical leader Warmo ruling the Warmians
Old Prussians
–
Medieval depiction of Prussians killing
Saint Adalbert, the missionary bishop; part of the
Gniezno Doors, c. 1175.
Old Prussians
–
The Prussian tribes in the context of the other Baltic tribes, ca. 1200 AD. The Eastern Balts are shown in brown hues whereas the Western Balts are shown in green. The boundaries are approximate.
Old Prussians
–
Prussian Hag – Old Prussian statue, now in Gdańsk
21.
Christianity
–
Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
Christianity
–
An
Eastern Christian icon depicting
Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the
First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381
Christianity
–
Various
depictions of Jesus
Christianity
–
Crucifixion, representing the death of
Jesus on the
Cross, painting by
Diego Velázquez, 17th century
22.
Bogurodzica
–
Bogurodzica is the oldest Polish hymn. It was composed somewhere between the 10th and 13th centuries, while the origin of the song is not entirely clear, several scholars agree that Adalbert of Prague is the likely author. Polish knights sang it as an anthem before the Battle of Grunwald, Bogurodzica also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of the first Jagiellonian kings. It was recorded in writing at the beginning of the 15th century, two records preserved till today date back to that time, the Kcynia record including two initial stanzas together with musical notation, the Kraków record covering thirteen stanzas without notes. Other records date back to the half of the fifteenth century. In 1509 the song was printed in Kraków in Jan Łaskis Statut, the origin of the song is not clear, although St Adalbert is a likely author. It used to be related either to Latin liturgy, the tradition of church hymns, Greek or Old Church Slavonic influences, Western or Eastern culture. The two initial stanzas were created first - probably in the middle or at the end of the thirteenth century, Bogurodzica is a prayer hymn whose first stanza contains an invocation to Christ through the intercession of Mary. It begins with an apostrophe to her - to the Mother of Christ, the Virgin, praised by God, after the apostrophe, there is an appeal to Mary to win favour for people from her Son. The second stanza begins with a direct addresses to Christ - with an invocation to John the Baptist who can support human imploring, the prayer closing this stanza contains a request that Christ give people a blissful stay on earth and, after death, everlasting existence in heaven. The subsequent stanzas develop various motifs, Easter, the Passion, Bogurodzica was initially connected with the mass and procession but already in the fifteenth century it became a knights battle hymn. Thanks to Jan Długosz we know that it was sung at Grunwald in 1410 as well as other battles in subsequent years. It also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of Władysław III of Poland and that is why Długosz called Bogurodzica carmen patrium. In the next centuries the hymn lost its significance and it regained its position of carmen patrium in the nineteenth century and has held it to the present day. J. Woronczak, wstęp językoznawczy E. Ostrowska, oprac, analiza tekstu, treści i formy, Lwów 1937. Problemy czasu powstania i tła kulturalnego, w, Prace z dziejów języka polskiego, a. Czyż, Bogurodzica - między Wschodem i Zachodem. Kilka myśli o duchowej jedności Europy, w, Światło i słowo
Bogurodzica
–
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces (probably sixteenth - seventeenth century) singing the Bogurodzica
hymn before the battle. Painting by
Józef Brandt.
Bogurodzica
–
Bogurodzica manuscript (1407)
23.
Czech language
–
Czech, historically also Bohemian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. It is spoken by over 10 million people and is the language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of being intelligible to a very high degree. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the written standard was codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The main vernacular, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, the Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are mostly also counted as Czech, although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak. The Czech phoneme inventory is moderate in size, comprising five vowels, words may contain uncommon consonant clusters, including one consonant represented by the grapheme ř, or lack vowels altogether. Czech orthography is simple, and has used as a model by phonologists. Czech is classified as a member of the West Slavic sub-branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and this branch includes Polish, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak. Slovak is by far the closest genetic neighbor of Czech, the West Slavic languages are spoken in an area classified as part of Central Europe. Around the 7th century, the Slavic expansion reached Central Europe, the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia formed by the 9th century. The Christianization of Bohemia took place during the 9th and 10th centuries, the Bohemian language is first recorded in writing in glosses and short notes during the 12th to 13th centuries. Literary works written in Czech appear in the early 14th century, the first complete Bible translation also dates to this period. Old Czech texts, including poetry and cookbooks, were produced outside the university as well, literary activity becomes widespread in the early 15th century in the context of the Bohemian Reformation. There was no standardization distinguishing between Czech and Slovak prior to the 15th century, the publication of the Kralice Bible between 1579 and 1593 became very important for standardization of the Czech language in the following centuries. In 1615, the Bohemian diet tried to declare Czech to be the official language of the kingdom. After the Bohemian Revolt which was defeated by the Habsburgs in 1620 and this emigration together with other consequences of the Thirty Years War had a negative impact on the further use of the Czech language. In 1627, Czech and German became official languages of the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the 18th century German became dominant in Bohemia and Moravia, the modern standard Czech language originates in standardization efforts of the 18th century. Changes include the shift of í to ej and é to í and the merging of í
Czech language
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The
Bible of Kralice was the first complete
translation of the Bible into the Czech language. Its six volumes were first published between 1579 and 1593.
Czech language
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regions where Czech is the language of the majority
Czech language
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Jan Hus
Czech language
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Josef Dobrovský, whose writing played a key role in reviving Czech as a written language
24.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
Polish language
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The oldest printed text in Polish – Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis printed in 1475 in
Wrocław by Kasper Elyan.
Polish language
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Polish
Polish language
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The
Jakub Wujek Bible in Polish, 1599 print
25.
Duchy of Prussia
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The Duchy of Prussia or Ducal Prussia was a duchy in eastern Prussia established during the Protestant Reformation in 1525. It was the first Lutheran duchy with a dominant German-speaking population, as well as Polish, in old texts and in Latin, the term Prutenia refers alike to Ducal Prussia, its western neighbor Royal Prussia, and their common predecessor, Teutonic Prussia. The adjectival form of the name was Prutenic, in 1525 during the Protestant Reformation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert, secularized the orders Prussian territory, becoming Albert, Duke of Prussia. His duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg, was established as fief of the Crown of Poland and it was inherited by the Hohenzollern prince-electors of Brandenburg in 1618, this personal union is referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia. Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, achieved full sovereignty over the territory in the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau, the Duchy of Prussia was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. In a deal brokered by Luther, Ducal Prussia became the first Protestant state. When Albert returned to Königsberg, he declared his conversion. On 10 December 1525, at their session in Königsberg, the Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding the Church Order. By the end of Alberts rule, the offices of Großkomtur and Ordensmarschall had deliberately been left vacant, some of the knights converted to Lutheranism in order to retain their property and then married into the Prussian nobility, while others returned to the Holy Roman Empire and remained Catholic. On 1 March 1526 Albert married Princess Dorothea, daughter of King Frederick I of Denmark, Albert was greatly aided by his elder brother George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who had already earlier established the Protestant religion in his territories of Franconia and Upper Silesia. Albert also found himself reliant on support from his Jagiellonian uncle Sigismund I of Catholic Poland, as the Holy Roman Empire, the Teutonic Order had only superficially carried out its mission to Christianize the native rural population and had erected few churches within the states territory. There was little longing for Roman Catholicism, Bishop George of Polentz had forbidden the widespread forms of pagan worship in 1524, and repeated the ban in 1540. Already on 18 January 1524 Bishop George had ordered to use native languages at baptisms. There was little resistance to the new creed, although the fact that the Teutonic Knights had brought Catholicism and Protestantism made the transition easier. The Church Order of 1525 provided for visitations of the parishioners and pastors, because Ducal Prussia was ostensibly a Lutheran land, authorities travelled throughout the duchy ensuring that Lutheran teachings were being followed and imposing penalties on pagans and dissidents. The rural population of native descent was only thoroughly Christianised starting with the Reformation in Prussia, a peasant rebellion broke out in Sambia in 1525. The combination of taxation by the nobility, the furor of the Protestant Reformation, the relatively well-to-do rebel leaders, including a miller from Kaimen and an innkeeper from Schaaken in Prussia, were supported by sympathizers in Königsberg. The rebels demanded the elimination of taxes by the nobility
Duchy of Prussia
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The
Prussian Homage (by
Jan Matejko, 1882, National Museum,
Kraków):
Albert receives eastern Prussia as a
fief from King
Sigismund I of Poland in 1525.
Duchy of Prussia
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Flag
26.
Cosmas of Prague
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Cosmas of Prague was a priest, writer and historian born in a noble family in Bohemia. Between 1075 and 1081, he studied in Liège, after his return to Bohemia, he became a priest and married Božetěcha, with whom he probably had a son. In 1086, Cosmas was appointed prebendary of Prague, a prestigious position, as prebendary he also travelled through Europe on official matters. His magnum opus, written in Latin, is called Chronica Boemorum, the Chronica is divided into three books, The first book, completed in 1119, starts with the creation of the world and ends in the year 1038. The second book describes Bohemian history for the years 1038–1092, the book starts with the heroic deeds of Duke Břetislav, known as the Bohemian Achilles, for example with his victory over Poland. The Chronica also describes the long and great reign of King Vratislav, there is also a reflection on his wars in Italy, this book ends with Vratislavs death. The third book starts with a description of the time of instability, the Chronica ends with the reign of Vladislav between 1109 and 1125. The same year,1125, Cosmas died, media related to Cosmas of Prague at Wikimedia Commons Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Cosmas
Cosmas of Prague
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Cosmas
Cosmas of Prague
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Chronica Boemorum, 12th century. Below on the page there are names of seven legendary dukes, who came after
Přemysl, the Ploughman.
27.
Radim Gaudentius
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Radim Gaudentius was Archbishop of Gniezno and the first Polish archbishop. Radim was a son of Bohemian Prince Slavník, and thus the half-brother of Adalbert of Prague. In 989, the two journeyed to Rome where they joined the Benedictine monastery of Sts, boniface and Alexius on the Aventine, with Radim adopting the name Gaudencius or Gaudentius. He accompanied Adalbert on his journey to Prussia in 997. Surviving the mission fatal to his half-brother, back in Rome he related the events of the journey to Abbot John Canaparius, who wrote a biography of Adalbert, historians are not certain with regards to his date of death, suggesting a range of 1006 to 1022. His date of birth is also an estimate, in the range of late 960s to early 970s and he is commemorated as Saint Radim in the Czech edition of the General Roman Calendar with an optional memorial on Oct.12. Attwater, D. Slovník svatých, Vimperk 1993 Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John
Radim Gaudentius
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Monument to Gaudentius and St. Adalbert in Libice nad Cidlinou, Czech Republic
28.
Magdeburg
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Magdeburg is the capital city and the second largest city of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe, Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the archbishopric of Magdeburg, was buried in the towns cathedral after his death. Magdeburgs version of German town law, known as Magdeburg rights, spread throughout Central, the city is also well known for the 1631 Sack of Magdeburg, which hardened Protestant resistance during the Thirty Years War. Prior to it Magdeburg was one of the largest German cities, Magdeburg was destroyed twice in its history. Magdeburg is the site of two universities, the Otto-von-Guericke University and the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, nowadays Magdeburg is a traffic junction as well as an industrial and trading centre. In 2005 Magdeburg celebrated its 1200th anniversary, in June 2013 Magdeburg was hit by record breaking flooding. Founded by Charlemagne in 805 as Magadoburg, the town was fortified in 919 by King Henry I the Fowler against the Magyars and Slavs. Edith loved the town and often lived there, at her death she was buried in the crypt of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Maurice, in 937, Magdeburg was the seat of a royal assembly. Otto I repeatedly visited Magdeburg and was buried in the cathedral. He granted the abbey the right to income from various tithes, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg was founded in 968 at the synod of Ravenna, Adalbert of Magdeburg was consecrated as its first archbishop. The archbishopric under Adalbert included the bishoprics of Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, Meissen, the archbishops played a prominent role in the German colonisation of the Slavic lands east of the Elbe river. In 1035 Magdeburg received a patent giving the city the right to hold exhibitions and conventions. These laws were adopted and modified throughout Central and Eastern Europe, visitors from many countries began to trade with Magdeburg. In the 13th century, Magdeburg became a member of the Hanseatic League, with more than 20,000 inhabitants Magdeburg was one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire. The town had a maritime commerce on the west, with the countries of the North Sea. The citizens constantly struggled against the archbishop, becoming independent from him by the end of the 15th century. In about Easter 1497, the then twelve-year-old Martin Luther attended school in Magdeburg, in 1524, he was called to Magdeburg, where he preached and caused the citys defection from Catholicism. The Protestant Reformation had quickly found adherents in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy, Emperor Charles V repeatedly outlawed the unruly town, which had joined the Alliance of Torgau and the Schmalkaldic League
Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg
29.
Adalbert of Magdeburg
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He was later canonised and his liturgical feast day was assigned as 20 June. 910, possibly in Alsace or Lorraine, France and he was a German monk at the Benedictine Monastery of St. Maximinus in Trier, Germany. He was consecrated a Roman Catholic bishop and in 961 was sent to Kievan Rus, princess Olga of Kiev had asked Emperor Otto I to provide her a missionary from the Roman Catholic Church. Her son, Svyatoslav opposed her and stole her crown as soon as Adalbert arrived in Kievan Rus, adalberts missionary companions were slain and Adalbert barely escaped. Kievan Rus subsequently was converted by missionaries from Constantinople and became part of Byzantine Christianity, upon escaping Kievan Rus, Adalbert traveled to Mainz, Germany, where he became the Abbot of Wissembourg in Alsace. There he worked to improve the education of the monks and he later became the first Archbishop of Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, in contemporary Germany. The Archepiscopacies of Hamburg and Bremen had been established with the intention that they would serve as bases for missions in northern and eastern Europe, the Archdiocese of Magdeburg was designated to provide missionaries to the eastern European Slavs. Adalbert also established dioceses for Naumburg, Meissen, Merseburg, Brandenburg, Havelberg and he died on 20 June 981 in Zscherben. Evidently St. Adalbert of Magdeburg transmitted something of his wisdom, zeal, and own mission to his student, Catholic Online, Saints & Angels, St. Adalbert of Magdeburg HighBeam Research, Adalbert of Magdeburg
Adalbert of Magdeburg
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Holy Card for St. Adalbert of Magdeburg
30.
Confirmation
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In Christianity, Confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in Holy Baptism. In some denominations, Confirmation also bestows full membership in a local congregation upon the recipient, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and many Anglicans view Confirmation as a sacrament. In the East it is conferred immediately after baptism, among those Catholics who practice teen-aged Confirmation, the practice may be perceived, secondarily, as a coming of age rite. In Protestant churches, the rite tends to be rather as a mature statement of faith by an already baptized person. It is also required by most Protestant denominations for membership in the church, in particular for traditional Protestant churches. Confirmation is not practiced in Baptist, Anabaptist and other groups that teach believers baptism, thus, the sacrament is administered to converts from non-Christian religions, those aforementioned groups, and nontrinitarian churches. There is a ceremony also called Confirmation in the Jewish religion. The age instituted was older than that of Bar Mitzvah because some of these topics were considered too complicated for 13-year-old minds to grasp. Nowadays, Confirmation has gained widespread adherence among congregations affiliated with the Reform movement, then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit. Also, in the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, Christ speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, later, after his Resurrection, Jesus breathed upon them and they received the Holy Spirit, a process completed on the day of Pentecost. After this point, the New Testament records the apostles bestowing the Holy Spirit upon others through the laying on of hands. From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace, it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, Abba. God the Father has marked you with his sign, Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, in the Latin Catholic Church, the sacrament is customarily conferred only on persons old enough to understand it, and the ordinary minister of Confirmation is a bishop. According to the ancient practice maintained in the Roman liturgy, an adult is not to be baptized unless he receives Confirmation immediately afterward, provided no serious obstacles exist. Priests who, in virtue of an office which they lawfully hold, in Eastern Catholic Churches, the usual minister of this sacrament is the parish priest, using olive oil consecrated by a bishop, and administering the sacrament immediately after baptism. This corresponds exactly to the practice of the early Church, when at first those receiving baptism were mainly adults, the practice of the Eastern Churches gives greater emphasis to the unity of Christian initiation. The main reason why the West separated the sacrament of Confirmation from that of Baptism was to direct contact between the person being initiated with the bishops. In the Early Church, the bishop administered all three sacraments of initiation, assisted by the priests and deacons and, where they existed, the post-baptismal Chrismation in particular was reserved to the Bishop
Confirmation
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German wood cut depicting Confirmation service (1679).
Confirmation
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A
bishop administering Confirmation.
Rogier van der Weyden,
The Seven Sacraments, 15th century.
Confirmation
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Infant baptism at a
Georgian Orthodox church.
Confirmation
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David Hamid, suffragan bishop in Europe, administering an Anglican confirmation in Helsinki.
pronunciation, Polish: Święty Wojciech) was later declared the patron saint of Bohemia, Poland, Hungary and the former polity of Prussia.
