Contribution to the Knowledge of Archbishop Sawatij’s Activities in Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

The historiographical problems also include the problem of the jurisdictional affiliation of Orthodox Christians in the territory of Czechoslovakia in the inter-war period, or the conflict between the Serbian and Constantinopolitan Orthodox Churches over the administration of the Orthodox community in the aforementioned territory. As a matter of fact, up to the present, both the Orthodox themselves and historiography have been tackling this problem with difficulties. They have mostly tried to solve it by one-sided preference of the one or the other side and have interpreted and evaluated the activities of both Orthodox factions, symbolized by the personalities of bishops Gorazd and Sawatij, accordingly. In this context, the need for a deeper knowledge of the life and work of archimandrite Sawatij (whose civil name was Antonín Vrabec), the most important figure of the early Orthodox Church after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, is also becoming urgent.