engleski

Croatia Benedictina: The Croatian Kingdom, Petar Krešimir IV and Ordo sancti Benedicti

In the history of the Croatian people and the Church, the 11th century is exceptionally important in political and ecclesiastical terms. A full picture of the period is limited only by the availability of surviving historical sources and other items: written documents, artistic memorials and archaeological remnants that faithfully testify to what was in many ways the pinnacle of the Croatian Kingdom in the second half of the 11th century. This was the Regnum Croatię et Dalmatię during the reign of King Petar Krešimir IV, and later, of Dmitar Zvonimir. The Order of Saint Benedict (Ordo sancti Benedicti) flourished most in this period, and its legacy is still present today. Through his work, writings and especially his Rule (Regula monachorum), St. Benedict of Nursia left his mark on medieval Western Europe ; primarily in the monastic life that followed his example, and later in the Latin culture and literacy which thrived in Benedictine scriptoriums and libraries, as well as in architecture (the Romanesque style), general knowledge and the arts. St. Benedict was rightly called the “father of Europe”, and declared the “first patron saint of Europe.” In Croatia, the Order of St. Benedict became the nucleus of consecrated monastic life and the main driving force behind the formation and spread of Croatian culture in three languages and using three scripts (first Latin, then simultaneously Glagolitic and Cyrillic). It was during the 1060s that the renewal of existing and the construction of new Benedictine monasteries began: St. Thomas’s in Biograd (1060-1062), St. Domnius’s (later St. Nicholas’s) in Trogir in 1064, St. Mary’s in Zadar in 1066, and St. Benedict’s (later St. Arnir’s) in Split (1068) ; and monasteries: St. John the Evangelist’s in Biograd (1060), St. John the Baptist’s in Trogir (before 1064), St. Peter´s in Supetarska Draga on the island of Rab in 1060 (?), and St. Peter´s in Selo/Jesenice in 1069 (?), etc. The Regnum Croatię et Dalmatię, or Croatia Benedictina, particularly during the reign of Krešimir, proved to be the golden age of the Order of Saint Benedict in Croatia.

: Croatian Kingdom, Petar Krešimir IV, Ordo Sancti Benedicti (Order of Saint Benedict), Benedictines, Dalmatia

Napomena: engleski prijevod studije Croatia Benedictina: Hrvatsko Kraljevstvo, Petar Krešimir IV. i Ordo sancti Benedicti, 2020.