Abstract
The Mukačevo Eparchy was formed as a center of Byzantine culture in the context of the Hungarian state of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its tradition has been little explored, but research has shown that it developed in the context of two main influences: Ukrainian (Kievan Rus’) and Romanian (Wallachia, Moldavia, Bukovina, Transylvania). The degree of each influence has not been defined yet, but it can be assumed that Romanian influences prevailed initially, later replaced by Ukrainian ones.
After the demise of the Great Moravian Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries, Byzantine culture survived after the Hungarian tribes took power, especially during the reign of the Arpad dynasty. During the 13th century, the political orientation of Hungary turned towards the Latin West, but, after the Tatar invasions, colonizers from Kievan Rus’ and Wallachia, Moldavia and Bukovina began to settle in the vacated territories. Their colonization was significant to the extent that the so-called Wallachian Law was created in Hungary, which gave certain concessions to the colonizers. As the newcomers from these areas belonged to the sphere of Byzantine culture, the presence of the Eastern Church, with its liturgy and music, was revived in Hungary.
Research on Romanian liturgical-musical traditions and their relation with the traditions of the Mukačevo Eparchy is an important step towards illuminating the history of the Mukačevo tradition in today’s Slovakia (Prešov), as well as in Hungary (Hajdúdorog), Transcarpathian Ukraine (Mukačevo), Croatia (Križevac), and their daughter eparchies in the United States of America (Pittsburgh) and Canada (Toronto).
Keywords
history, liturgy, Mukačevo, music, Romania
