A History of Central Eastern Europe

State in 833. The Great Moravian Kingdom followed in 836 under MOJMÍR I, followed by
his nephew RASTISLAV (died 870) in 846. RASTISLAV asked the Byzantine EMPEROR
MIKHAĒL III (840 – 867) and the PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PHOTIOS I (c820 – 893)
to send Slavic-speaking Bishops to teach the Gospels as a counter-measure to the
growing influence of the Latin-speaking priests from East Francia. (While the POPE in
the Vatican claims descent from the Apostle SAINT PETER, the PATRIARCH in
Constantinople claims descent from the Apostle SAINT ANDREW). The efforts of
CONSTANTINE included development of the Glagolitic alphabet to allow for the
expression of specifically Slavic sounds. That language is known as Old Church
Slavonic while the present language of the liturgy for Eastern Orthodox and Eastern
Catholic Slavs is its derivative, Church Slavonic. With slight modifications, the Glagolitic
alphabet became the Cyrillic one. Named as an honor to CYRIL, which was the name
bestowed posthumously on CONSTANTINE, the Cyrillic alphabet is still very much in use.
The Great Moravian Kingdom morphed into the Great Moravian Empire in 870
under SVÄTOPLUK I (c830 – 894), the usurping nephew of RASTISLAV. The Empire
reached its greatest size under the nephew and covered most of Moravia and Slovakia
and parts of Bulgaria, Czech and Poland. While the Great Schism within the Catholic
Church still lay in the future, its foundations were already being felt in Slovakia when the
question arose regarding whose direct authority would any Catholic Church in the area
be: the POPE in Rome or the EMPEROR in Constantinople? The answer would not be
easily or completely answered though, in general, it can be stated that the Catholic
Church in most Slavic lands became affiliated with the Eastern or Byzantine Rite of the
Catholic Church.
Magyar tribes invading from the east during the 890s wedged themselves
between the Bulgars and the Slavs. The Slavs fled to the mountains once again where
many adapted to the region and established the “highland” towns. In the last years of
the reign of KING SVATOPLUK the Czech people allied themselves with the German
states, while the Poles established a separate kingdom of their own. In 897 C.E. KING
SVATOPLUK died and his heirs were besieged by Magyar invasions from Hungary. The
remnants of the Empire lasted until the fall of the castle at Bratislava to the Magyars in
907 C.E. In 955 C.E. Czech and German armies defeated the Magyars and the area
was ruled by the Czech prince BOLESLAV and his successor BOLESLAV II until 999 C.E.,
when the Magyars, once again, took control of the area. For the next millennium, the
Slavic people would be ruled by outsiders. 5 6
SPIŠ SZEPES ZIPSER
Huge spruce forests cover quite a large area of
the SPIŠ region in central Slovakia. The nearby Poprad
River is the only river in Slovakia that flows to the north
emptying into the Baltic Sea.
The coat-of-arms for SPIŠ has 5 sections. There is
a quartered shield where each quarter represents a ruling
family: the TURZO family is represented in the upper
right field (as seen by the holder, not the viewer, of the
shield) which is red with a golden lion; the KOROTNOKY
family is represented in the upper left field of blue with a
silver unicorn and a golden crown under its fore legs; the
DRAVECZKY family coat-of-arms is
35