Who were Saints Cyril and Methodius?

Answer

Saints Cyril and Methodius were a pair of missionary brothers who pioneered Bible translation. They ministered among the ninth-century Danubian Slavs, the indigenous Europeans residing in the Danube River basin, and devised a written language for them. Their impact in this mission field was so significant that they are often referred to as the “Apostles to the Slavs.”

Cyril, originally named Constantine, was born around 826 or 827 in Thessalonica, where his father, along with Methodius’s, served as an officer in the Byzantine Empire’s army. Cyril journeyed to Constantinople at a young age for studies and eventually became a professor at the imperial university there. Methodius, originally Michael, was born between 815 and 826, also in Thessalonica. He held a position as a governor of one of the empire’s provinces before choosing to become a monk.

Cyril was offered his brother’s governor position but opted to join him as a monk at the same Greek monastery where Methodius served as abbot. From 860 onwards, they collaborated on converting the Khazars, situated northeast of the Black Sea.

Around 862, the Duke of Moravia requested independence from German rule from Emperor Michael III, which, despite opposition, was granted. Cyril and Methodius were dispatched as missionaries to enlist local clergy and institute a Slavonic liturgy. They translated the Bible into a language later recognized as Old Church Slavonic or Old Bulgarian. Additionally, they devised the Glagolitic alphabet—based on Greek letters—which continues to serve as the foundation for modern Russian and various other Slavic languages.

Cyril and Methodius encountered resistance from German religious and political authorities who insisted on a solely Latin liturgy. Approximately in 868, Pope Nicholas I summoned the brothers to Rome to address the issues with the German officials, particularly the German bishops.

Top of Passau—who refused to recognize the Slavic priests ordained by Cyril and Methodius. Pope Nicholas I died before they arrived, but the new Pope, Adrian II, took Cyril and Methodius’s side and formally authorized the Slavic liturgy and ordained Cyril and Methodius as bishops. Shortly thereafter, Cyril succumbed to a longstanding illness and died on February 14, 869, in Rome.

Methodius returned to Moravia with Pope Adrian’s blessing to continue his work as archbishop of Sirmium (modern Hovatzka Mitrovitza in Bosnia). Later, the political tides changed, and Methodius was tried and imprisoned in 870. He was not released until two years later when Pope John VIII intervened. Between 878 and 880, Methodius was again summoned to Rome to defend the Slavonic liturgy, and, once again, the Pope supported him and the use of the vernacular language. Methodius then traveled to Constantinople to finish the Bible translation he had started with Cyril.

Methodius was at odds with the German religious leaders until his death on April 6, 884, in Moravia. His work in the Slavic language continued to be contested posthumously, but Cyril and Methodius’s influence reached as far as Kiev in Russia and to the Slavs in Bohemia, Croatia, and Poland.

Saints Cyril and Methodius were pioneers in cross-cultural mission work and strongly believed that people should worship in their own language. Their linguistic influence continues today in modern Eastern European languages. The feast day for both Cyril and Methodius is May 11 in the Eastern Orthodox Church and February 14 in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.