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On the Orthodox Mission of the Serbian Bishop Dositheus (Vasić) in Czechoslovakia in 1920 – 1926

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On the Orthodox Mission of the Serbian Bishop Dositheus (Vasić) in Czechoslovakia in 1920 – 1926 Štúdie, články | Studies, Articles Success, or Defeat? On the Orthodox Mission of the Serbian Bishop Dositheus (Vasić) in Czechoslovakia in 1920 – 1926 JURIJ DANILEC – PAVEL MAREK ABSTRACT: The formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 created a new sit- uation for the nations still living in the Habsburg monarchy. Fundamental changes happened not only in terms of the constitutional law conditions, but also in all areas of the life of the society. The changes also affected the area of the church and religion. The democratic political regime guaranteed people freedom of religion. This fact is reflected in the reinforcement of secular tendencies, but at the same time there were changes and a revival of activities both inside established churches and in churches and religious societies which the political regime of the monarchy had suppressed. The inter-church transfer movement also affected the community professing the values of Eastern Christianity. The Orthodox movement had a spontaneous and unrestrained character. For this reason, the inexperienced state administration invited the Serbian Orthodox Church to help organize the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia, and so it sent a mission led by Dositheus (Vasić), the bishop of Niš, to the member country of the Little Entente. The bishop, who was mainly active on the territory of the Czech lands and in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, tried to establish the Orthodox faith in the Czech lands within the newly established National Church of Czechoslovakia (Hussite) and supported the emancipatory efforts of a group of Orthodox Czechs who had converted to Orthodoxy before World War I. In Subcarpathian Ruthenia, he sought to create a Carpathian Orthodox eparchy under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The authors recall the main features of Dositheus’s Orthodox mission and evaluate its results. They conclude that the mission did not meet the original expectations as a result of both objectively unfavourable circumstances and its own errors. On the other hand, the authors perceive the bishop’s work as an important chapter in the history of the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia, which extends to Czechoslovak-South Slavic relations in the interwar period. Keywords: Dositheus (Vasić), Czechoslovakia, Serbian Orthodox Church, mission Introduction The topic chosen for our paper is not entirely new in historiography as it is crucial for the beginnings of the history of the Orthodox Church in the Czech lands, Slova- kia, and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, which formed an integral part of the territorial unit founded after the First World War on the ruins of the Habsburg monarchy. It has aroused interest especially from authors associated with the ecclesiastical envi- Kultúrne dejiny / Cultural History, Volume 9, Issue 1, pp. 176-189 © Verbum 2019 |233| Štúdie, články | ronment;1 it has received less coverage from secular historians from the academic world.2 We chose it, because the research results of Dositheus’s Orthodox mission in Czechoslovakia seem relatively unconvincing. The approach of most authors to this material is insufficiently critical and the steps of the bishop’s activities are evaluated very carefully as if the authors were afraid of damaging his image and the memory of the canonized Orthodox neo-martyr.3 Therefore, in our study we want to arrive at an unbiased and objective evaluation of the bishop’s activity on the basis of the knowledge gained during the new research into the problems of the Church and religious crisis in Czechoslovakia in the years after the First World War. It seems to us that a certain idealization of Dositheus’s mission stems from its reflection as an act leading to the spread of Eastern Christianity, and fewer au- thors take into account its impacts on an environment which has traditionally been connected mainly with Western culture, namely the Catholic and Greek Catholic churches and their Roman centre. From the methodological point of view we divided the interpretation into three parts: the first summarizes the basic data on the personality of Bishop Dositheus (Vasić) and the two following parts analyse and evaluate the activities of the Ortho- dox mission in the Czech lands and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. This division seems logical to us in view of the differences in the development of the Orthodox move- ment in both parts of the republic, which were in many respects poorly compatible and meant that the bishop had to solve different problems. We want to contribute to keeping the interpretation clear. Our conclusions are based primarily on the study of archival records stored in Czech, Ukrainian (Carpathian), and Serbian archives. We use secondary literature on the issue offered by international historiography. 1 Cf. FEJSAK, Jozef. Působení biskupa Dositeje mezi Čechy po 1. světové válce. In Pravoslavný teologic- ký sborník, 1987, year 14, pp. 131 – 146; JANIĊ, Milutin. Missija Serbskoj Pravoslávnoj Cerkvi v Čechii i Slovakii vo glave s episkopom Nišskim Dosifeem (Vasićem) v 20-e i 30-e g. g. XX. veka i peredača jej del v vedenie Russkoj Pravoslavnoj Cerkvi v 1946 godu. Sankt-Peterburg, 2004, 223 c. Rkp. ročníkové práce na petrohradské duchovní akademii; BUREGA, Vladimir Viktorovič. Dějateľnosť svjaščennoispovednika Dosifeja (Vasića) na teritorii Zakarpatskoj Ukrajiny v 1920-e gg. In Srpska teologija v dvadesetom veku: istražavački problemi i rezultati. Kn. 14. Beograd : Pravoslavni bogoslovski fakultet, 2013, c. 141 – 47. 2 MAREK, Pavel. K Dositejově československé misi v letech 1920 – 1925/6. In O exilu, šlechtě, Jihoslo- vanech a jiných otázkách dějin moderní doby. Sborník k narozeninám Arnošta Skoupého. Olomouc : Univerzita Palackého, 2004, s. 181 – 205; MAREK, Pavel. Srbská pravoslavná církev v Československu ve 20. letech 20. století. (K Dositejově podkarpatoruské misi). In Studia balcanica bohemo-slovaca. 6. Sv. 1., Sekce historie, politologie a etnologie. Příspěvky přednesené na 6. mezinárodním balkanistickém sympoziu v Brně ve dnech 25. – 27. dubna 2005. Brno : Matice moravská, 2006 s. 317 – 333. 3 From the literature on Dositheus’s personality and work cf. Mitropolit Dositej Vasić, episkop niški, 1913 – 1933. Niš : Štamparija „Sveti car Konstantin“, 1933, 45 c.; KONDAIĆ, Pavel (ed.). Christu veran do smrti. Sveštenoispovednik Dosifej zagrebački i vavedeński. Beograd; Cetinje : Archiepiskopija, 2008, 455 c.; VU- KOVIĊ, Svetozar (episkop šumadijski Sava). Srpski jerarsi od devetog do dvadesetog veka. Beograd : Evro; Podgorica : Unireks; Kraguevac : Kalenić, 1996, c. 175 – 176; IGNATIJ (ŠESTAKOV) - BUREGA, Volodi- mir V. Dosifej (Vasić). In Pravoslavnaja enciklopedija, 16. Moskva : Cerkovno-naučnyj centr „Pravoslav- naja enciklopedija“, 2007, c. 51 – 52; Vasić Dosifej, metropolit zagrebački. In Srpski biografski rečnik, 2. Novi Sad : Matica srpska, 2006, c. 82 – 83; ANTONIJEVIĆ, Saša. Vladika Dosifej (Vasić). In Kalenić, 2009, no. 3, c. 27 – 29; BUREGA, Vladimir Viktorovič. Sobor svjatych Kijevskoj duchovnoj akademii: ustanovlenije prazdnovanija i ikonografija. InTavričevskije duchovnyje čtenija. Materialy meždunarodnoj naučno-praktičeskoj konferencii posvjaščennoj 140-letiju sozdanija Tavričeskoj duchovnoj seminariji. Sim- feropoľ : Izd. Simferopoľskoj i Krymskoj eparchii UPC, 2013, c. 18 – 24. |234| KULTÚRNE DEJINY 2/2019 DANILEC - MAREK | Success, or Defeat? On the Orthodox Mission of the Serbian Bishop | In the research we work with the hypothesis that Dositheus’s Orthodox Mission in Czechoslovakia was not entirely successful in its entirety and only some partial goals were achieved. An Important Figure in the History of the Serbian Orthodox Church First, we will make a few brief remarks about the personality and work of Bish - op Dositheus (* 5 December 1878 Belgrade, † 13 January 1945 Belgrade), one of the most important figures in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century. In the first instance we ask the question why he, from among other bishops, was appointed to lead the mission in Czechoslovakia. We cannot give an explicit answer, because in a resolution of the Sabor (assembly) of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the period from 18 November to 1 December 1920, which formally decided on sending the mission, the reason is not stated; it only mentions his appointment as a leading member of the Sabor (a vice-chairman), a devotee of orthodoxy, and a wise man and priest.4 Therefore, we have to look for reasons in the data selected from his biography. For the function of a delegate – an Orthodox missionary in a Central Euro- pean country traditionally inclined to Latin culture and Western European, pre- dominantly Catholic, or even Protestant Reformation – Bishop Dositheus (Vasić) was qualified by his broad theological, philosophical, sociological, and political education and outlook. After completing his studies at a priestly seminary in Bel- grade (1899) and a one-year stay at the Manasija monastery, the Serbian Orthodox Church sent him, as a talented and promising priest, to study at the prestigious Kiev Theological Academy, the oldest theological scientific institution in Eastern Europe. In 1904, after completing his studies and defending a thesis entitled The Truth of the Miracle of the Resurrection of Christ the Saviour, he was awarded the title of Candidate of Theology. In addition to his four-year studies in Kiev, Dositheus also had an important study stay in Germany. While he was deepening his knowledge of Orthodox theology in the Serbian and Ukrainian environments, two years
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