Source: Rusyn Society
June 16, 2021
What is Rus’? We know of Carpathian Rus’, Kievan Rus’, Galician-Volhynian Rus’, Lithuanian Rus’ juxtaposed against Moscovian Rus’, and a multitude of others throughout history. Many of these words do not simply represent nations, but also ideas. It has even been said that Rus’, in fact, is not a nation, but an idea. There is a Rusynophile idea, a Moscophile idea, a Ukrainophile idea, in history there was even a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian idea of Rus’[1]. All of these lay claim to it, but we can see these are very different understandings of the term. So how is it that there are different understandings of Rus’? And if it is an idea, then how should we go about understanding it?
The greatest words spoken on this matter perhaps come in the form of the mystifying maxim: “You can’t understand Rus’ with your mind. Rus’ is something which you can only believe in.”[2] Believe—that is a word you would apply more to an idea. In the Old Slavic language, the word “to believe” «вѣрити» (viriti) literally means “to [have] faith”, coming from the word Vira «Вѣра» meaning Faith. Faith—now that is something not applied to just any belief, it is more appropriately applied to a religion. For one to believe in Rus’ one has to have faith in the central idea at its foundation. If it were not complicated enough, there is another Rus’ and she is the key to understanding all of this.
Her name is Holy Rus’, and she is most dear to them that know. For the sake of Holy Rus’, the Carpathians became a Little Golgotha; for her and her King, with the blood of countless martyrs like St. Maxim Sandovich, red did the river Tisa flow. “Holy Rus’, keep ye the Orthodox Faith! In her is your foundation!” said another great Hieromartyr, who suffered under the Bolshevik yoke. While anyone who knows the traditional Rusyn greeting: “Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!” knows the name of her King, due to centuries of religious wars and persecutions, it had often become harder to practice the true faith of Holy Carpathian Rus’—Orthodox Christianity according to the Cyrillo-Methodian traditions.
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