Church in Prague receives relic of Czech Marco Polo [Odoric of Pordenone]

Radio Czech ^ | September 12, 2018 | Tom McEnchroe

[SunkenCiv]

I, brother Odoric, a Czech from Turlania,...crossed the sea and visited the land of the unbelievers intending to harvest some of their souls. I will not mention all that I have seen...For I would have not believed it myself, if I had not heard it and seen it with my own ears and eyes.

Thus begins the 'The Journey into the Empire of the Great Khan', a book of recollections written in the 14th century by Czech priest, Odoric of Pordenone, who set out for China in 1318, after being commissioned by the Pope to establish contact with the its Mongol rulers.

Crossing Persia and Tibet, his journey would eventually take him beyond the Middle Empire, as far as the Philippines, where he was the first priest to conduct Christmas mass.

Yet despite the extraordinary life of this Czech Marco Polo, Odoric is virtually unknown in the country and wider Europe as a whole.

"Odoric was historically unlucky. His account was discovered by a French author and plagiarised in the 1350s, becoming a collection of travellers' tales, which we know today as the 'The Travels of Sir John Mandeville', so Odoric's own story was forgotten. His book was eventually published in Czechoslovakia in 1962, but that was more than half a century ago."

The reason why Odoric is from Pordenone and not a more Czech sounding settlement, is because he was born in 13th century Northern Italy, to a Czech soldier serving in the army of Premysl Ottokar II., as it was campaigning in Friuli.

It is also in Pordenone where Odoric's body lies today, in a church specially built to resemble a Mongol tent.

[SunkenCiv]

“Lad, I don’t know where you’ve been, but I see you’ve won first prize.”

[Eleutheria5]

Might be the origin of the term canoodling.

[SunkenCiv]

;^)