Abstract
Slavic people in the folds of the eastern Carpathian Mountains accepted Christianity by the evangelical work of Byzantine theologians and later Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. With the collapse of Constantinople, authority for Eastern Orthodoxy became contested and remains that way today in the latest conflict between Russia and Ukraine. With the Treaty of Uzhhorad in 1646, many churches practicing the Eastern Rite agreed to come under the control of Rome, and today the Slovak Greek Catholic Church continues the dominant faith in many small Rusyn [also referred to as ‘Lemko’] dominated villages. The borders of the Central European countries have been also fought over and redrawn in the last 150 years, with Rusyn villages united within Czechoslovakia following World War I now found split between eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine. Following World War II, the Greek Catholic church was outlawed in then Czechoslovakia, with priests jailed or exiled, and churches turned over to the Russian Orthodox Church. With Slovak independence in 1993 villages voted overwhelmingly to reinstitute Greek Catholic affiliation and initiating a rebuilding of seminaries for the training for priests. Over the last thirty years the wooden churches of the Carpathians have retained their almost 400-year-old architectural pedigree and remain the focus of village spiritual life. This resilience following fighting in their midst across two world wars, their dissolution and reimagination stands as a testimony to how the faith passed down across generations transcends political fragility in the region.
Presenters
Michael LucasProfessor Emeritus, Architecture, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Fragile Meanings: Vulnerability in the Study of Religions and Spirituality
KEYWORDS
Oppression, Dissolution, Resilience, Greek Catholic, Slovakia
