Many sites indicated by documentation recall in the memory the stay of St Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and St Methodius in Rome in 867–869. Most of them are marked by inscriptions, memorial plaques, etc. In this article, the author focuses on one place marked as a “site of memory” for which there is no historical documentation: the Basilica of Santa Prassede in Rome. A memorial plaque appeared on its outer wall in the 1990s according to which “in the years 867‒869, the apostles St Constantine- Cyril and St Methodius, the founders of the Old Slavonic liturgy and writing, lived in this monastery”. This statement is based on a hypothesis formulated in the 1960s by the Croatian scholar St. Sakač and perceived as a possibility by the Slovak scholar M. Lacko, without, however, having any documentary basis. In presenting Sakač’s arguments, the author shows that they are based entirely on assumptions that have a certain logic but are not supported by any historical data. Aware that, thanks to the memorial plaque, the Basilica of Santa Prassede is increasingly perceived as a place of transmitted historical memory, the author insists that we should not perceive the sites of memory constructed entirely on a hypothetical basis as testimonies to the historical truth that often is irretrievable in detail.
Красимир Станчев (Рим, Италия)
krassimir.stantchev1@gmail.com
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