Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Cyril and Methodius are remembered as the apostles of the Slavs and the fathers of Slavonic Christian literary culture. The younger brother, baptized Constantine and later known as Cyril, was formed at Constantinople and gained a great reputation for learning. Methodius had served in public office before becoming a monk. Both were already tested men when Prince Rostislav of Moravia asked for missionaries who could teach his people in their own tongue. That request changed the course of their lives. Cyril devised an alphabet for the Slavic language, and together the brothers translated the Scriptures and the liturgy, giving the Slavs for the first time the capacity to hear and celebrate the Christian faith in words they could understand. The alphabet Cyril created, later refined into what is called Cyrillic, became the foundation of a whole literary culture.

Their mission was not without opposition. Frankish missionaries and German bishops resisted the use of the vernacular, insisting that only Latin, Greek, or Hebrew were proper languages for Christian worship. Cyril and Methodius went to Rome to defend their approach, and they received papal approval. Cyril died there in 869, having taken monastic vows in his final weeks. Methodius returned to Moravia and continued the work, enduring imprisonment at the hands of opponents, restoration by a later pope, and further years of labor until his death in 885. They are venerated together as pillars of both Eastern and Western Christian traditions, and Pope John Paul II named them co-patrons of Europe.