Cyril and Methodius

The Holy Equals-⁠to-⁠the-⁠Apostles Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica, missionaries and scholars, called the Apostles to the Slavs. To them is ascribed the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used for Old Church Slavonic, as well as the translation of Holy Scripture and service books into Slavonic. In 1980 Pope John Paul II declared them, with Saint Benedict of Nursia, patrons of Europe. The Romanian Orthodox Church commemorates them on 11 May.

Family and youth

Both were born at Thessalonica, then in the Byzantine province of the same name: Methodius, baptized Michael, between 815 and 820, and Cyril, baptized Constantine, in 827 to 828. According to the Life of Cyril, he was the youngest of seven brothers. Their father, Leo, was a droungarios in the theme of Thessalonica, and their mother was called Maria. Their exact ethnic origin is not known, and scholars ask whether they were Greek, Slavic or both. Their father died when Cyril was fourteen, and a powerful minister, Theoktistos, took care of him.

From 843 Constantine studied at Constantinople, at the court of Emperor Michael III, where one of his teachers was Photius. He knew Slavic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic well, was librarian of the patriarchate and received the name the Philosopher. Methodius was for a time governor of a Slavic province, then became a monk at the Polychron monastery on Mysian Olympus, where he received the name Methodius.

The mission to the Slavs

In 863, at the request of Prince Rastislav of Moravia, Emperor Michael sent the two brothers to preach the Gospel in the language of the Slavs. For this they devised the Glagolitic alphabet and translated into Slavonic the Gospels and service books. With their disciples they served in the language of the people, which stirred the opposition of foreign clergy, who held to services only in three languages. In 867 they went to Rome, where Pope Adrian II approved services in Slavonic. There Constantine took monastic vows with the name Cyril, and fell asleep on 14 February 869, and was buried in Rome.

Methodius was ordained archbishop of Pannonia and Moravia. He was imprisoned by the Bavarian bishops, then freed, and continued his work until his repose in 885 in Moravia. After his death their disciples, among them Clement and Naum, were driven out of Moravia and found refuge in Bulgaria, where they continued the work at Preslav and at Ohrid. In the literary school of Preslav, after the death of the two brothers, the Cyrillic alphabet was devised, on the basis of Greek letters, named after Cyril.

Veneration

The two brothers are honoured as saints equal to the apostles by the Orthodox Church. In the West, Pope Leo XIII introduced their feast into the Roman calendar in 1880. The Romanian Orthodox Church commemorates them on 11 May, the Slavic churches on 24 May, and the Catholic Church on 14 February, the day of Cyril's death, while in the Czech Republic and Slovakia they are honoured on 5 July.