Czech Lands and Slovakia, Orthodox Church of

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

Orthodoxy was present in Moravia – the medieval forerunner of Czechoslovakia – from the time of the mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodios in the 9th and 10th centuries, but the majority religion of the region had always been Roman Catholic. The stirrings of the Reformation secessions were severely controlled by the Habsburgs in the early 17th century when they gained power over Bohemia and Moravia. Czechoslovakia was constituted as an independent nation in the years following World War I, part of the extensive process of the breaking up of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. The Orthodox churches of recent times were founded in Prague in the mid-19th century, and since then have come under, at various times, the patronage of the patriarchates of Serbia, Constantinople, and Moscow.

In 1918 the vast majority of the popula­tion was Roman Catholic. During World War I, Orthodoxy had been suppressed in the country, and it was also to endure some element of persecution again during World War II. When the Czechoslovakian Ortho­dox Church was reconstituted in the after­math of the first war, approximately 40,000 declared themselves and a bishop (Gorazd Pavlik) was appointed for them by the Serbian patriarch. Bishop Pavlik succeeded in rallying together most of the Orthodox faithful under the jurisdictional care of the Serbian patriarch, but in 1942 he and several of his clergy were assassinated by the Nazi invaders. By 1946 the political mantle of the Soviets had fallen over the country, and the patriarch of Moscow acted inde­pendently to assume jurisdictional charge of the Czechoslovakian Orthodox. This was one of the reasons the phanar for some time looked askance at the canonical status of the churches of Czechoslovakia and Poland. The concept, and reality, of a separate Czechoslovakian Orthodox Church had been significantly shrunk by the Soviet annexation of much of its former territory in Podcarpatska Rus, but was soon after swollen in 1950 by the suppos­edly free return to Orthodoxy of the Byzantine-rite Catholics of the diocese of Preshov in Slovakia. These reunited congre­gations demonstrated their truer senti­ment in 1968 when large numbers elected to return to the Roman Catholic eastern- rite communion. In 1951 the patriarchate of Moscow declared the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia to be henceforward auto­cephalous under the guidance of the metropolitan of Prague. Constantinople at first did not accept this status and declared it to be an autonomous church under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. It was not until 1998 that Constantinople recognized the autocephaly. The country separated politically once more into its chief constituent parts, namely the Czech lands and Slovakia, after the collapse of communism in the last decade of the 20th century. Even with this political sever­ing, however, the Orthodox remained united across the national divide. There is a smaller Orthodox presence in Slovakia with 10 parishes and 23,000 faithful; while the Czech Republic has 100 parishes and 51,000 faithful who use the Slavonic rite. The total number of Orthodox in the region amounts to not much more than 74,000 faithful.

SEE ALSO: Sts. Constantine (Cyril) (ca. 826–869) and Methodios (815–885)

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Barrett, D., Kurian, G., and Johnson, C. (eds.) (2001) World Christian Encyclopedia, vol. 1, 2nd edn. New York: Oxford University Press.