The Baptism of Bořivoj

JAN 01 883 · 12:00

Karel Javůrek's 1858 painting of Methodius baptizing Bořivoj and Ludmila at Svatopluk's Moravian court. Place: The court of Svatopluk, Great Moravia (probably Velehrad) Figures: Bořivoj I, duke of the Czechs · Svatopluk I, ruler of Great Moravia · Saint Methodius, archbishop, who performs the baptism · Ludmila, Bořivoj's wife, baptized with him Bořivoj is a tributary duke. The Czech basin pays its dues south to Great Moravia, the Slavic federation that runs from Nitra to the Sudeten foothills. Around the year 883 he comes to Svatopluk's court for a feast. He is, by Christian's Legend, made to sit on the floor like a pagan while the baptized eat at the table. Methodius, the Byzantine archbishop of Moravia, leans in and explains the protocol: receive Christ, sit on the bench. Bořivoj receives Christ. So does Ludmila his wife. The chronicle does not tell us how much of the catechism either of them understood, in a Slavonic liturgy newly invented for exactly this purpose. They are sent home with a priest, Kaich, who founds a small wooden church to Saint Clement at Levý Hradec, four river-miles upstream of the future Prague.