ENCYKLIKA GRANDE MUNUS A JEJ ODOZVA U SLOVENSKÝCH KATOLÍKOV

Pope Leo XIII issued the Encyclical Grande Munus on the 30th of September 1880, right at the beginning of his long pontificate. He noted apostolical merits of Sts. Cyril and Methodius there and extended their feast to the whole Church. The feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius was set on the 5th of July by the Pontiff. The great thanksgiving pilgrimage of the 1.400 Slavs to Rome between the 25th of June and the 5th of July 1881 was a direct answer of the Slavs to the emphasis, which the Pope placed on the importance of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage by the Encyclical Grande Munus, and his favour to the Slavonic cause. The representatives of the Slovak Catholics favourably reacted to the Encyclical and atteded the pilgrimage. The author of the paper will deal with the reaction of the Slovak Catholics to the two aforementioned events in the press in the 19th century.