Metropolitanate of Tourkia

The Metropolitanate of Tourkia was a high-ranking Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical eparchy in the 11th and 12th centuries. According to scholarly theories, the metropolitan bishops were the head of a supposed Orthodox ecclesiastic system in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Bishop of Tourkia

The Magyars (or Hungarians) invaded the Carpathian Basin in 895 or 896.[1] They settled in the lowlands along the Middle Danube and consolidated their authority in the region during the subsequent decades.[2] Contemporaneous Byzantine authors referred to them as Tourkoi and to their land as Tourkia in the 10th century.[1] The Hungarians were pagans, described as star- and fire-worshipers by Muslim geographers.[3] In search for booty, they made regular raids, primarily against Western Europe in the early 10th century.[1] They also invaded the Balkan territories of the Byzantine Empire in 934 and 943, forcing the Byzantines to sign a peace treaty.[4] One of the Hungarians' principal military commanders, the karhas Bulcsú, was baptised in Constantinople in 948.[5][6] Bulcsú's conversion was not sincere and he launched new plundering raids against the Byzantine Empire in the early 950s.[7]

The second-ranked Hungarian chieftain, Gylas, received baptism in Constantiople around 952.[5][6] The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus rewarded him with the honorary title of patrikios, entitling him to a yearly subsidy.[8] The Ecumenical Patriarch tasked a monk, Hierotheos, with the conversion of Gylas' subjects and consecrated him bishop.[7] Hierotheos accompanied Gylas back to his realm where he converted many Hungarians, according to the Byzantine historian John Skylitzes.[7] Porphyrogenitus associated Tourkia with lands to the east of the river Tisza in one of his books written around the same time.[9] Finds of 10th-century Byzantine coins, earrings, reliquiary crosses and similar artefacts abound in the region of Szeged.[7][9] Both facts imply that Gylas' domains were located near the confluence of the Tisza and Maros,[10] but this interpretation is not universally accepted by modern historians.[7]

Metropolitan of Tourkia

One "Ioannes [John], metropolitan of Tourkia" attended the synod convoked by the Ecumenical Patriarch to Constantinople in 1028.[11] At the list of the participants, Ioannes was mentioned as the last among the metropolitans, showing that his see had been recently established or elevated to the rank of metropolitanate.[12] A 12th-century register of the dioceses subject to Constantinople lists the metropolitanate of Tourkia at the 60th entry, only followed by the metropolitanate of Rhôsia (or Kievan Rus').[13][14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Stephenson 2000, p. 39.
  2. ↑ Curta 2006, pp. 188–189.
  3. ↑ Berend, Laszlovszky & Szakács 2007, p. 319.
  4. ↑ Stephenson 2000, pp. 39–40.
  5. 1 2 Berend, Urbańczyk & Wiszewski 2013, p. 129.
  6. 1 2 Stephenson 2000, p. 40.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Berend, Urbańczyk & Wiszewski 2013, p. 130.
  8. ↑ Stephenson 2000, pp. 40–41.
  9. 1 2 Stephenson 2000, p. 41.
  10. ↑ Stephenson 2000, pp. 41–42.
  11. ↑ Koszta 2014, p. 128.
  12. ↑ Koszta 2014, pp. 128–129.
  13. ↑ Koszta 2014, p. 129.
  14. ↑ Bán 1999, p. 46.

Sources

  • Bán, István (1999). "The Metropolitanate of Tourkia: The Organization of the Byzantine Church in Hungary in the Middle Ages". In Prinzing, Günter; Salamon, Maciej. Byzanz und Ostmitteleuropa 950-1453: Beiträge zu einer table-ronde des XIX. International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Copenhagen 1996. Harrassowitz. pp. 45–54. ISBN 3-447-04146-3.
  • Berend, Nora; Laszlovszky, József; Szakács, Béla Zsolt (2007). "The kingdom of Hungary". In Berend, Nora. Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus', c. 900–1200. Cambridge University Press. pp. 319–368. ISBN 978-0-521-87616-2.
  • Berend, Nora; Urbańczyk, Przemysław; Wiszewski, Przemysław (2013). Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, c. 900-c. 1300. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-78156-5.
  • Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge University Press.
  • Koszta, László (2014). "Byzantine archiepiscopal ecclesiastical system in Hungary?". In Olajos, Terézia. A Kárpát-medence, a magyarság és Bizánc [The Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians and Byzantium]. Szegedi Tudományegyetem Bizantinológiai és Középlatin Filológiai Tanszéki Csoport. pp. 127–143. ISBN 978-963-306-298-2.
  • Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-02756-4.
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