CYRILO-METODSKÁ TRADÍCIA A ANDREJ HLINKA

Andrej Hlinka (1864–1938), a Roman Catholic priest, as a prominent personality of the Slovak political and religious life, identified himself with the Cyril and Methodius reverence and tradition. He considered it an important element of the Slovak and Slavic religious and national identity. He showed his reverence for Cyril and Methodius by participating in pilgrimages and congresses held in the Moravian town Velehrad. Hlinka spread the Cyril and Methodius cult despite the opposition of the Hungarian church hierarchy. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1919, he organized the central Cyril and Methodius festivities in Slovakia. He considered the Cyril and Methodius cult to be the orthodox cult which, in union with the Catholic Church, could overcome the onslaught of secularism and sects.