Religion
Further information: Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages and Conversion of PomeraniaThe Rani believed in multiple gods, all of which had several faces and were worshipped as tall wooden statues in their respective temples. They were worshipped in temples, holy groves, at home and in ritual meals. The mightiest among their gods was Svantevit, a four-headed god having his temple at Cape Arkona in the northernmost part of his isle of Wittow. This temple was worshipped and collected tributes not only from the Rani, but from all Baltic Wends after Rethra, which previously had been the main Wendish religious centre, was destroyed in a German raid in 1068/9.
Other gods were Tjarnaglofi with his temple on Jasmund near today's Sagard, further there were Rugievit, Porevit and Porenut with temples in the capitol, Charenza, and other gods with temples all over the Rani realm.
After the forced Christianization, monasteries and churches replaced the temples. In the church of Altenkirchen, a large stone from Arkona was used with a relief showing a Svantevit priest.
Read more about this topic: Rani (Slavic Tribe)
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich.”
—HonorĂ© De Balzac (17991850)
“I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.”
—Jonathan Swift (16671745)
“Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded him.”
—Ernest Renan (18231892)