page_title: Great Moravia
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Great Moravia / Culture / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Archeologické muzeum Mikulčice-Valy - kamenné základy kostela Deutsch: Archäologisches Museum Mikulčice-Valy - Grundsteine einer Kirche English: Archaeological museum Mikulčice valy - stone foundations of a church
context_page_description: Great Moravia, the Great Moravian Empire, or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, chiefly on what is now the territory of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and perhaps Serbia. The only formation preceding it in these territories was Samo's Empire known from between 631 and 658 AD. Great Moravia was thus the first joint state of the Slavic tribes that became later known as Czechs and Slovaks and that later formed Czechoslovakia.
  Its core territory is the region now called Moravia in the eastern part of the Czech Republic alongside the Morava River, which gave its name to the kingdom. The kingdom saw the rise of the first ever Slavic literary culture in the Old Church Slavonic language as well as the expansion of Christianity after the arrival of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in 863 and the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet dedicated to a Slavic language. Glagolitic was subsequently replaced by a simpler Cyrillic. The Cyrillo-Methodian cultural mission had significant impact on most Slavic languages and stood at the beginning of the modern Cyrillic alphabet.
context_section_description: Like other Slavs, the Great Moravian Slavs originally practised a polytheistic religion with an ancestor cult. Several cult places used prior to the Christianization of Moravia have been found in Moravia (Mikulčice and Pohansko). However, we do not know what these objects, such as a ring ditch with a fire, a horse sacrifice, or human limbs ritually buried in a cemetery, meant to Great Moravians. An alleged cult object in Mikulčice was reportedly used until the evangelization of the Moravian elite in the mid-9th century and idols in Pohansko were raised on the site of a demolished church during the pagan backlash in the 10th century. The only Slavic pagan shrine found in modern Slovakia is an object in Most pri Bratislave dedicated probably to the god of war and thunder Perun. The shrine was abandoned in the mid-9th century and never restored.
  The spread of Christianity had several stages and it is still an open research question. In older publications, the first organized missions were attributed mainly to Hiberno-Scottish missionaries, but modern works are more sceptical about their direct influence.  The territory of Great Moravia was originally evangelized by missionaries coming from the Frankish Empire or Byzantine enclaves in Italy and Dalmatia from the early 8th century and sporadically earlier. Traces of an Aquileia-Dalmatic mission are found in Great Moravian architecture and language. Northern-Italian influence is assumed also for golden plaques with Christian motifs from Bojná (probably from a portable altar), which belong to the most important Christian artefacts dated prior to the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Especially after the defeat of the Avars at the end of the 8th century, Frankish missionaries became the most important part of organized missions. The first Christian church of the Western and Eastern Slavs known from written sources was built in 828 by Pribina in Nitra and consecrated by Bishop Adalram of Salzburg. Most of the territory was Christianized until the mid-9th century. Despite the formal endorsement by the elites, Great Moravian Christianity was described as containing many pagan elements as late as 852. Grave goods, such as food, could be found even in church graveyards.  The Church organization in Great Moravia was supervised by the Bavarian clergy until the arrival of the Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863.
  In 880, the pope ordained a Swabian monk, Wiching, as bishop of the newly established see of Nitra ("sancta ecclesia Nitriensis"). Some experts (e.g., Szőke Béla Miklós) say that the location of the seat of 9th century diocese is different from present-day Nitra.
caption: Stone foundations of a church in Valy u Mikulčic, Czech Republic
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