Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Their story

Cyril and Methodius were brothers born in Thessalonica, in Greece, in the ninth century. Cyril, whose name was originally Constantine, was a brilliant scholar who taught philosophy in Constantinople. Methodius served for a time as a government official before becoming a monk. Because many Slavic people lived around Thessalonica, the brothers grew up knowing their language. In 862 Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, asked the emperor in Constantinople for missionaries who could teach his people the faith in their own language. The brothers were sent. Because the Slavic language had no written form, Cyril created an alphabet for it. With it the brothers translated the Gospels and the prayers of the liturgy, so that people could hear God's word and worship in their own tongue. The alphabet their followers later developed, named Cyrillic in his honor, is still used today by many millions of people. Some clergy opposed them, insisting that worship should only be in Latin, Greek or Hebrew. The brothers went to Rome, where Pope Adrian II welcomed them and approved their work. Cyril became a monk in Rome and died there on February 14, 869. Methodius was made an archbishop and returned to the Slavic lands. He suffered opposition and was imprisoned for more than two years before the pope secured his release. He kept working until his death in 885. In 1980 Pope St. John Paul II named Cyril and Methodius patrons of Europe, as signs of the unity of the Church of East and West.