The Making of Christian Moravia (858-882)

In The Making of Christian Moravia Maddalena Betti examines the creation of the Moravian archdiocese, of which St Methodius was the first incumbent, in the context of ninth-century papal policy in central and south-eastern Europe. In the nineteenth and twentieth century religious and nationalistic concerns widely influenced the reconstruction of the history of the archdiocese of Methodius. Offering a new reading of already widely-used sources, both Slavonic and Latin, Maddalena Betti turns attention upon the jurisdictional conflict between Rome, the Bavarian churches and Byzantium, in order to uncover the strategies and the languages adopted by the Apostolic See to gain jurisdiction over the new territories in central and south-eastern Europe.

Maddalena Betti, Ph.D. (2008) in the history of the Church, University of Padova, is a researcher at that university. She has published several articles on the ninth-century papacy and on the early medieval history of the Slavs.

"In her book, Maddalena Betti attempts to chart the fate of the Methodian mission in Great Moravia and the establishment of Sancta ecclesia Marabensis in Moravian territory in the second half of the ninth century. While this topic has been treated previously, she has chosen to look at the formation of ecclesiastical hierarchies in Great Moravia from the perspective of papal policies. For this reason, Betti has studied in detail papal correspondence pertinent to matters of the Moravian mission, especially the letters of John VIII, whose correspondence is particularly concerned with the Moravian mission. Her study is an extremely valuable addition to previous research into Great Moravian Christian culture, as it provides a well-rounded and erudite picture of the papal position on the Methodian mission in Great Moravia. Besides, Betti’s study also contributes to other scholarly inquiries connected with the Moravian state, such as its geographical location..."
Evina Steinova, Network and Neighbours, Volume 2, Number 1 (2014)