Benediktinci u vizantijskom Kotoru

Abstract

U radu se govori o okolnostima koje su uslovile dolazak benediktinaca na područje Bokokotorskog zaliva. U periodu od 9. do druge polovine 11. veka beleži se znatno prisustvo ovog reda u Tivatskom zalivu, gde je, pored manastira sv. Mihaila na Prevlaci, osnovano još nekoliko manjih monaških nastambi. Takođe, govori se i o dva manastira na teritoriji pod vizantijskom vlašću, od kojih se jedan nalazio na prilazima Kotoru, a drugi u samom gradu. Benediktinci su, svakako, igrali važnu ulogu u procesima hristijanizacije slovenskog stanovništva, dajući izvesnog doprinosa razvoju dokumentarne pismenosti, književnom i umetničkom stvaralštvu i prosvetnoj delatnosti u Kotoru, jednom od važnih centara teme Dalmacije, kao i u graničnom pojasu pod vlašću travunijskih i dukljanskih knezova.

Starting from the 830s the Benedictines in the south of Italy were exposed to the Saracen and other outlaw attacks leaving their monasteries endangered and looted. The troubles culminated by the conquest of Montecassino in 883. Due to the strengthening of the Byzantine authorities, the circumstances in the eastern Adriatic coast seemed by far more stable and suitable for the life of the monastic communities. Besides, some Slavic population lived in the hinterland of the Byzantine towns and they were slowly penetrating to the coastal areas for more than two centuries. Those people were gradually building up their relation with the Romans from the urban areas. The Slavs were still the worshippers of the old religion or only partly Christianized. The conversion of the Balkan Slavs was one of the primary aims of the Byzantine politics. In that aspect the Benedictines posed an excellent choice when it came to the Slavic neighbours of the Byzantine towns on the Adriatic coast. Those were the monks who set up their monasteries in the rural areas close to the main traffic and town centres whose way of living fitted in the mentality and the habits of the agrarian society and they enjoyed the reputation of being successful missionaries. The Christianization of the Slavic people enabled the spread of the cultural models from the Byzantine authority centres, which invoked the strengthening of the ideological positions and firming the factual power. On the other hand, the popes had to view these feats benevolently since the Benedictines almost immaculately contributed to the strengthening of the Roman Church positions in Dalmatia. Therefore, it is no wonder that in the areas southwards from Dubrovnik the Benedictine presence was recorded first in the vicinity of the Byzantine Kotor and in the town itself as well as in the nearby Budva. The existence of the strong Byzantine authority centre supported the missionary activities and establishing the Benedictine order in the borderline districts of Duklja and Travunija, surely under the rule of the Serbian princes. In the early second half of the 11th century the Benedictines left the Tivat bay, where St Michael's Abbey on Prevlaka was the pillar of their gathering. Sava Nemanjić rebuilt this monastery in 1220 and it became the seat of the Zeta bishop. Metochia sancti Michaelis included the other Benedictine settlements apart from St Peter's in Bijela of which we do not know when it was turned into a Catholic parish. The monasteries of St Peter and St Michael in Kotor gradually turned into the parish churches. It is conspicuous that the Benedictines abandoned their settlements for no visible reason nor the pressure coming from the outside, so that those were mainly some interior motives difficult to be observed clearly. Thus, the only remaining abbey in the area of the Kotor bishopric was St George's Abbey in front of Perast.