SPEECH ON THE PROCLAMATION OF ROMAN KRALIK AS DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA AT THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY EUROPA PRIMA

Today, October 3, 2025

An event is taking place that bridges the centuries

Between two brotherly European countries, Slovakia and Macedonia

And from the 9th century to the present day it shows that

The Light of Knowledge and Scientific Research

Together with Art through the “Civilization of Love” and

The “Nostalgia for Unity” of Saints Cyril and Methodius

Turns them into an academic reality.

 

The Equal-to-the-Apostles of Slavic Culture St. Cyril and Methodius

Who were proclaimed protectors of Europe

11 centuries after their deaths by Pope John Paul II

In his famous Encyclical of 1980

This act completes the long-standing cooperation

Of our university with the University of Constantine the Philosopher of Nitra

Because Nitra is at the center of European and pan-Slavic memory.

 

That ancient Slavic hymn, known throughout all meridians

“Nitra, dear Nitra, you Slavic mother”

The undeniable historical fact that

St. Methodius was proclaimed the first Slavic bishop

In the magnificent church in Nitra

Is the spiritual foundation of our modern university cooperation

Which also has an 11-century tradition

Because the students of St. Cyril and Methodius

Our eternally living Ohrid saints St. Clement and St. Naum

Together with St. Gorazd, who comes from Moravia

Shows that the first translation of the Holy Scriptures into the Old Slavonic language

First with the Glagolitic script and then with the Cyrillic script

Are present here among us, today in this first academic class

In the academic year 2025/26

With which our institution enters the academic campaign

On the recent twentieth anniversary.

 

This act shows that the immortality of the light of the spirit

From the Babylonian and Alexandrian libraries

To the Magnaur Academy in Constantinople

Together with Ohrid and Macedonia and the Constantine the Philosopher University of Nitra

And today with the Catholic University of Ruženbork

Open a new page on the European route of St. Cyril and Methodius

And show that Knowledge and Art will be, and are

A new imaginary and real World Library

In which both social and natural sciences and

Audiovisual arts and digital memory

Can save humanity from the daily destruction

Which we are witnessing in the catastrophic ferocity of liquidation in

a large number of crisis hotspots in the world.

 

Today, the proclamation of Roman Kralik as DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA

At our university

One of the five most cited scientists in the world from Slovakia

Who with his research shows that the millennia

From prehistory and antiquity before Jesus Christ and after him, to the present day

Can be united in one individual bibliography

And it can be spread across all continents.

 

Dear Professor Roman Kralik

Your scientific and research odyssey

Which begins at the College of St. Olaf, in the USA

Which has been declared the center of world studies

Dedicated to Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

The Danish philosopher who remains an international phenomenon to this day

Exactly 170 years after his death,

As a journey through academic infinity

It is precisely with this jubilee that we associate your highest academic nomination

Because from Slovakia and the Czech Republic you have made a great pilgrimage

Starting from the universities of Toronto, Mexico City,

Granada and Malaga in Spain

Buenos Aires and San Salvador in Argentina

Not forgetting all the other points on the planet such as

The University of Krakow, Poland

The University of Casablanca in Morocco

The University of Beijing, China

Where You have analyzed Kierkegaard’s world

Through the questions of spiritual destiny of

The entire memory of humanity through

The mirror of the present, through the relationships East-West

Through the great nuclear threats in which

You opposed the philosophy of love

Which has been active in these 170 years

Since Kierkegaard’s departure into Eternity

And has exerted an influence that is indelible

On Henrik Ibsen and on August Strindberg

And on Albert Camus, and on Jacques Derrida

And on a whole host of other authors that you personally, dear Roman Kralik

Has given you scientific wings to enter the sphere of film and theater

As a field of Kierkegaard’s inexhaustible heritage

As one of the centers of the spiritual Eternity of world memory.

 

Finally, I would like to end with an intimate emphasis

On your presence at the great academic ceremony

At the French Academy in Paris

Together with the Vice-Rector of Constantine the Philosopher University, Martina Pavlikova

Where I was awarded the Grand Prix for Lifetime Achievement

And in the addresses of the famous French academicians

My most performed play in the world “R” was mentioned

Translated into many languages ​​and world anthologies

You were delighted that the character of Abraham was inspired

Exactly from the book “Fear and Trembling” by Kierkegaard

Where Abraham sacrifices his son Isaac

In the name of the spiritual revolution that never came to pass in the world

And the first tombstone with the name Abraham

Was found precisely on the soil of Macedonia

In the year 50 BC

And it comes as a crown to this sermon

That your research covers

Both timelessness and the time in which we live

And the starry sky of world philosophy

From Socrates through St. Cyril and Methodius

To Kierkegaard and to Roman Kralik!

 

We proclaim you DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA

At the International University Europa Prima

And may the journeys continue in academic infinity

The supreme dignity of World Civilization!

 

Jordan Plevnesh

President of the International University Europa Prima – Skopje

October 3, 2025