Freising and the Slavs under Bishop Abraham a text-based approach to mission and pastoral care among the Carantanians in the 10th century

This dissertation investigates how mission and pastoral care among the Carantanians occurred during the episcopate of Abraham of Freising (957–993/4). The starting point for the research is the well-known Codex Latinus Monacensis 6426 that holds the oldest known written Slavic texts. These so-called Freising Monuments or Brižinski Spomeniki in Slovene, consist of an exhortation to penance and two confessional formulae probably used among the Carantanians. During the past two centuries, much research has been conducted on the language of the Freising Monuments and how they fit into a missionary context. However, little attention has been paid to the broader context of these texts. The immediate context of the manuscript and the broader historical context have mostly been understudied. The search for connections with other manuscripts from Freising was even non-existent. Since we were aware the Freising Monuments and, by extension, Clm 6426 were potentially surrounded by unexplored material in the form of other codices and manuscript fragments, we wanted to overcome these purely constructed barriers to provide a clearer image of how mission and pastoral care among the Carantani during the second half of the 10th century was conducted. In addition to attempting to reconstruct the overall manner of providing mission and pastoral care among the Carantanians during the episcopate of Abraham, we were eager to find answers to some very specific questions. We wanted to know which textual and linguistic choices were made to respond to the religious needs of the Carantanians. To answer these questions, multiple research strategies were applied. First, we explored the historical background of the missionary activities in Carantania and the influence that major political events had on these activities. We also wanted to learn more about the use of language in mission and pastoral care, so we searched for evidence of strategies applied by missionaries and other clergy to overcome language barriers during the Middle Ages. To discover which texts were selected to serve in pastoral care and, to some extent, mission in an area that was at least still growing in faith, we wanted to determine whether there were some sort of guidelines for mission and pastoral care that could have been followed. We needed actual manuscripts and manuscript fragments from the time of Abraham that could be linked to use in Carantania to draw conclusions about which textual choices were made. We discovered the text choices were not based on preset standards but were consciously adapted to this region. However, it is evident the prescriptions regarding the practical side of pastoral care and religious education from the Admonitio Generalis were borne in mind. In general, we can say we have the spiritual texts (sermons and sayings of the Church Fathers) that contribute to basic soul care. Furthermore, we have texts that form a jurisdictional (canon law, creeds and other decisions) and practical (blessings, ordines) framework. Regarding the language barrier, we were rather focused on why the Freising Monuments were written in Alpine Slavic, whereas other important texts were not. After thorough research, we assumed the Freising Monuments were created as “lifelines” for priests who did not fully master the Alpine Slavic language (yet) but were confident enough to speak it. Especially in the three texts from Freising, a priest, or even a bishop, could not afford to make mistakes in confessional formulae and an exhortation to penance, as the intended audience should be able to understand everything very clearly without room for interpretation. This point could also explain why these texts in particular were translated and transcribed. In principle, other types of texts, mostly sermons, could have been translated more freely on the spot with or without help from a translator. The texts that were clearly relevant for a community that was still growing in faith – basically every sermon in Clm 6426 – were written in a quite direct manner and, therefore, were fairly easy to translate and adapt on the spot when necessary. At the end of the research, we were able to draw a general conclusion about how mission and pastoral care occurred among the Carantani during the episcopate of Abraham. Abraham was a man with good contacts, and he enjoyed great prestige, from which we can deduce he was certainly capable of exercising his power successfully. By the time he became bishop, the decades-long military threat of the Magyars had subsided, so there was a more favourable climate to invest more in religious support. It became clear that Abraham did invest in a more qualitative and better defined pastoral care and possibly, to some extent, mission compared with his predecessors.