www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Possible Glorification of Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague

Glad you liked that!

My in-laws worked in Prague for a couple of years and they attended a ceremony held by the Ukrainian embassy there in honour of Hus around July 6th each year. During that ceremony, the above poem was recited (in Ukrainian, of course).

Tomorrow, BTW, is the commemoration of Bl. Jerome Savonarola. On that date in 1498, Savonarola was hanged and burned in the Piazza in Florence with two other Dominican friars. Some Florentines later paraded with naked prostitutes on their backs and went into the Duomo to throw dung at the pulpit where Savonarola preached.

The Dominican Order venerated Savonarola privately as a Blessed, produced religious medals with his image, said the Mass of "Il Beato Girolamo Savonarola" etc.

St Catherine of Bologna and St Philip Neri were both from Florence and both venerated Savonarola privately. St Philip Neri even had a reliquary medal of Savonarola on his neck chain when he died.

Due to the fact that Savonarola was excommunicated by that great pope Alexander VI, the fact that these two Saints honoured him, even privately, was enough to have their canonization processes jeopardized for a while.

I hope I don't get into trouble with my affinity for Hus . . .

Alex

One more thing and I'll leave this matter alone, I once wrote an akathist to Jan Hus for some Orthodox converts from a Hussite group (who continued to venerate Hus privately).

There was a solid, positive response to it from the strangest quarters. One "High Church" Lutheran pastor in Germany had a portion of it set to music for use in his parish.

That akathist may be used for the formal glorification of Hus, although I haven't received any final word on it as they are waiting for an actual date to be set.

Just as an FOI . . .

now the bit that confuses me is - how does the Czech Orthodox Church glorify someone who was baptized, lived and died outside of communion with the Orthodox Faith?

Excellent question.

Jerome of Prague died as an Orthodox Christian and they now have his baptismal certificate as proof of this.

But Jan Hus was definitely RC. The Czech Orthodox Primate and also those in his Church who venerate Hus privately maintain that he was "Orthodox in spirit" as he wanted to return to the "original faith and traditions" of Bohemia which were Orthodox.

There you have it.

Alex

Same question could be asked of St. Isaac the Syrian who was a member of the Assyrian Church of the East.

Excellent point you raise sir!

St Isaac of Nineveh was already glorified a Saint by the Assyrian Church of the East.

The Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches loved his writings and so adopted his cultus, placing his in their Calendars. There was no problem doing that since St Isaac never involved himself in the Christological controversies of his day, never wrote against the Churches that the Assyrian Church was separated from and was otherwise perfectly Orthodox in what he wrote and confessed.

The only issue involving his writings was his quotes from the Assyrian teachers like Theodore of Mopsuestia.

In a number of places, his references to Theodore and other Assyrian teachers were outrightly deleted. That shouldn't be surprising. The great spiritual book "Unseen Warfare" was originally written by an Italian Catholic priest and was then revamped along Orthodox lines by St Nicodemos Agioritis and St Macarios of Corinth - and was later redone again by St Theophane the Recluse.

In Hus's case, he isn't a formally glorified saint who will be "co-opted" by Orthodoxy, his popular veneration notwithstanding. The Czech Orthodox Church is determined to formally glorify him and this would indeed set a unique precedent in the annals of Hagiography.

Alex

thanks, for this really informative thread! I'll have to pass this onto our parishioners, from the Czech Republic; and are slated to make a trip back there, later in June.