Our Friends the Saints: Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs and Co-Patron Saints of Europe (24 May)

Breaking slightly with custom, we present here the lives of two saints and brothers who are of monumental importance for the Christian Church in Eastern Europe. Their feast is celebrated in the Anglican calendar on 14 February, but since most people may be inclined to miss their feast for that of St. Valentine (though in slightly more secular form), we offer it here today, which is the date of their feast in the Orthodox Church, in which these two amazing brothers are venerated as “equal to the apostles”.

Cyril and Methodius, brothers born in Thessalonika, are honored as apostles to the Southern Slavs and as the founders of Slavic literary culture. Cyril was a student of philosophy and a deacon, who eventually became a missionary monastic. Methodius was first the governor of a Slavic colony, then turned to the monastic life, and was later elected abbot of a monastery in Constantinople.

In 862, the King of Moravia asked for missionaries who would teach his people in their native language. Since both Cyril and Methodius knew Slavonic, and both were learned men–Cyril was known as “the Philosopher”–the Patriarch chose them to lead the mission.

As part of his task among the Moravians, Cyril invented an alphabet to transcribe the native tongue, probably the “glagolithic,” in which Slavo-Roman liturgical books in Russian and Serbian are still written. The so-called “cyrillic” alphabet is thought to have been originated by Cyril’s followers.

Pressures by the German clergy, who opposed the brothers’ teaching, preaching, and writing in Slavonic, and the lack of a bishop to ordain new priests for their people, caused the two brothers to seek foreign help. They found a warm welcome at Rome from Pope Adrian the Second, who determined to ordain both men bishops and approved the Slavonic liturgy. Cyril died in Rome and was buried there. Methodius, now a bishop, returned to Moravia as Metropolitan of Sirmium.

Methodius, still harassed by German bishops, was imprisoned at their behest. Eventually, he was released by Pope John the Eighth, on the condition that Slavonic, “a barbarous language,” be used only for preaching. Later, the enmity of the Moravian prince caused Methodius to be recalled to Rome on charges of heresy. Papal support again allowed him to return to Moravia and to use Slavonic in the liturgy.

Methodius completed a Slavonic translation of the Bible and of Byzantine ecclesiastical law, while continuing his missionary activities. At his funeral, celebrated in Greek, Latin, and Slavonic, “the people came together in huge numbers…for Methodius had been all things to all people that he might lead them all to heaven.”

–from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1997, p. 160.

Almighty and everlasting God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit didst move thy servant Cyril to a hostile and divided people: Overcome, we pray thee, by the love of Christ, all bitterness and contention among us, and make us one united family under the banner of the Prince of Peace; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Also: Cyril and Methodius were especially dear to the heart of Pope John Paul II (born in Poland Karol Józef Wojtyła), who described himself as “the first son of the Slav race to be called, after nearly two millennia, to occupy the see that once belonged to Peter”. He dedicated one of his fourteen encyclical letters to the brothers, Slavorum Apostoli.