"Unity, education, language" : Cyril and Methodius in the eyes of Slovenian Catholic intellectuals from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century
"Edinost, izobrazba, jezik" : Ciril in Metod v očeh slovenskih katoliških intelektualcev od sredine 19. do sredine 20. stoletja

english

2025

volume 85, issue 4

Christian unity   Cyril and Methodius   language and education   Slovenian national consciousness

Univerza v Ljubljani, Teološka fakulteta
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, during the struggle against Germanization and other nationalist pressures, Slovenian Catholic intellectuals attributed significant merit to Cyril and Methodius in spreading education and strengthening national consciousness. The importance of Cyril and Methodius in the Slovenian environment was substantiated by intellectuals, such as the pedagogue and bishop of Maribor Anton Martin Slomšek (1800–1862), the Franciscan friar and linguist Stanislav Škrabec (1844–1918), and the diocesan priest and historian Ivan Vrhovnik (1854–1935). The highest expression of these efforts was the establishment of the Society of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 1885, who-se purpose was to build schools with the Slovenian language of instruction in eth-nically mixed areas. The establishment of Cyril and Methodius as bearers of religious and national ideals was crucially influenced by a series of anniversaries associated with the millennium of their work in Moravia and Pannonia (1863, 1869, 1885). The publication of the encyclical Grande munus (1880) by Pope Leo XIII also significantly contributed to the spread of their veneration. However, the role of Cyril and Methodius was comprehensively portrayed among Slovenian intellectuals not until Franc Grivec (1878–1963) in the first half and in the mid-twentieth century. Grivec was a priest and professor of ecclesiology and Eastern theology at the Faculty of Theology in Ljubljana, who also arranged for the first critical editions of sources about the holy brothers in the Slovene language.

17.02.2026