Charles Odahl appeared as one of the on-camera specialists in a one-hour documentary film shown in Poland this spring titled “Mesco Dux Baptizatur” (Latin for “Duke Mieszko is Baptized”). The film was produced by leading Polish filmmaker Maciej Pawlicki for the 1,050th anniversary of the conversion and baptism of Duke Mieszko I in 966. The film featured Odahl and his former Boise State student Philip Steele as the on-camera historical experts. It was premiered at a special showing in Gniezno, the medieval capital of Poland, before the president, prime minister and political elite, and the Catholic primate, a papal nuncio and the church elite of the country on Thursday, April 14. It then was aired twice on Polish TV 1 across the country on Sunday, April 17.
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The Polish translation of Odahl’s book, “Constantine and the Christian Empire” (2015), and Steele’s book, “The Baptism of Mieszko I” (2016), have both become non-fiction best sellers in Poland as a result of the Mesco documentary film and the festivities surrounding the anniversary of the medieval Christianization of Poland.
Odahl also presented a plenary address before the Northwest Early Christian Studies Seminar at the University of Portland this spring — an hour long illustrated presentation on “Christian Imagery on the Imperial Coinage of the Constantinian Dynasty.” A 15-page illustrated outline is available on the Charles M. Odahl/Boise State University Academia.edu blog.
BY: KATHLEEN TUCK PUBLISHED 9:34 AM / APRIL 29, 2016