Medieval Liturgy and the Making of a Political Identity – A Case Study of Poland circa 1000

In this interview, Paweł  Figurski, Assistant Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences and a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Regensburg, talks with Karen Culver about his current research into medieval liturgy and the making of Polish political identity around the year 1000. In this newly Christianised region, Paweł  shows how the liturgy was used, not only to spread the Christian message, but also to build awareness of the emerging early medieval state through the repetition of rulers’ names and propagation of the new name of a country (Polonia). This ritual was a key part in building a political identity not only among the literate clergy, but also with more straightforward means among the other members of the political elite.This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering Central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.In the interview the following recordings have been utilized. We thank the authors for enabling us to share medieval music in the podcast:1) "Annua recolamus” from the album Sacer Nidus - Św. Wojciech, Bolesław I. Chrobry i Otton III. w muzyce średniowiecznej by Ensemble Peregrina, dir. Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett, Raumklang 2011 2) Exultet chant based on the Gradual of Bolesław II of Mazovia, MNK Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Rr. 4922-4940 (olim: KrM MNK/XV/rys/2271-89), performed by Isabella Burns at the University of Notre Dame, 2015.