Methodius

Saint Methodius, equal to the Apostles, was a Byzantine missionary from Thessalonica, elder brother of Saint Cyril, and archbishop of Moravia. With Cyril he is regarded as the creator of the Slavic alphabet and teacher of the Slavs. He died in 885 and is commemorated, with Cyril, on 11 May; in 1980 Pope John Paul II named them, with Saint Benedict, patrons of Europe.

Beginnings

He was born around 815 at Thessalonica, named Michael, in the family of the drungarios Leo, as its elder son; their mother was named Maria. It is not known whether the name Methodius was given him at baptism or at his tonsure. With the support of the family’s friend and protector, the great logothete Theoktistos, he made a career as an official and soldier, rising, according to some, to strategos of Sklavinia, a Byzantine province in Macedonia, inhabited by Slavs, whose speech he knew. Then he became a monk in the monastery on the Lesser Olympus (Mysia), in Asia Minor, was abbot of the monastery of Polychron on the Marmara Sea, and later was joined by his brother Constantine.

Mission in Moravia

In 862 envoys of Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia came to Constantinople, asking for teachers. The emperor and patriarch sent the brothers from Thessalonica, who from 863 translated the Gospels and service books into Old Church Slavonic and devised the Glagolitic alphabet. German clergy opposed them, wanting services only in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Around 867 the brothers went to Rome and stopped with Prince Koceľ in Pannonia. Pope Hadrian II allowed them services in Slavonic. Cyril became a monk at Rome and died in 869, while Methodius was ordained archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia and returned to Pannonia in 870.

Persecution

Svatopluk, who came to power in Great Moravia with the help of Louis the German and the German clergy, hindered and stopped Methodius’ work. The Frankish bishops, who came to Moravia to bring Christians back to Roman customs, arrested him and kept him in prison, after a synod that accused him of heresy; he was held at Regensburg between 870 and 873, almost three years with no one caring for him, until Pope John VIII ordered his release. After being freed he went to Pannonia and then to Rome, where he proved his case, and in 880 the pope again confirmed services in Slavonic. In 882-884 he was at Constantinople, and in mid-884 he returned to Moravia, where, with his disciples, he translated the Bible into Slavonic.

Death

Methodius died on 6 April 885 and was buried in the great cathedral of Moravia. Which city was the capital is not known for certain, so the place of his tomb is unknown; some archaeologists place the cathedral at Mikulčice. Right after his death, the German clergy, led by Wiching, bishop of Nitra, obtained from the new pope, Stephen V, a decision against services in Slavonic, and his disciples were driven out and went to Bulgaria, where the work continued.