May 24, Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, creators of the Slavonic Alphabet and Script, founders of the Slavonic literature, and Day of the Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture
CYRIL AND METHODIUS, APOSTLES OF THE SLAVS

May 24 is a particularly significant day. On this date Bulgaria celebrates the Feast of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, intrepid heralds of the Gospel of Christ and founders of the literary language and culture of the Slav peoples. Their liturgical memorial has a particular significance, since it is also the "Feast of Bulgarian letters". This is not something which concerns the Orthodox and Catholic faithful alone, but is an opportunity for all to reflect on the cultural patrimony which originated with the activity of the two Holy Brothers of Thessalonica.
In 1980 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Saints Cyril and Methodius Patrons of Europe, together with Saint Benedict of Norcia.
 
Introducing the Gospel to the culture of the peoples whom they evangelized, the Holy Brothers with their brilliant creation of a new alphabet achieved special merit. In order to respond to the needs of their apostolic ministry, they translated the Sacred Books into the local language for liturgical and catechetical purposes, and thus laid the foundations of literature in the languages of the Slav peoples. They are therefore rightly considered not only the Apostles of the Slavs, but also the fathers of Slav culture. Culture is the expression, incarnate in history, of a peoples identity; it forges the soul of a nation, which identifies itself with specific values, expresses itself in precise symbols, and communicates by its own proper signs.
 
Through their disciples, the mission of Cyril and Methodius was marvellously consolidated in Bulgaria. Here, thanks to Saint Clement of Ohrid, dynamic centres of monastic life were founded, and here the Cyrillic alphabet greatly developed. From here also Christianity spread to other lands, until it reached, via nearby Romania, the ancient Kievan Rus, and then spread towards Moscow and other regions eastward.

 Today Cyril and Methodius are honored by Eastern and  Western Christians alike, and the importance of their work in preaching and worshipping in the language of the people is recognized on all sides. The work of Cyril and Methodius made an outstanding contribution to forming the common Christian roots of Europe, those roots which by their depth and vitality have created a solid cultural reference-point which cannot be ignored in any serious attempt to rebuild in a new and contemporary way the unity of the Continent.
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The creator of the Slavic alphabet and the first translator of liturgical books from Greek into Old-Bulgarian was Constantine, the Philosopher, better known by his name in religion, Cyril,  adopted on his death bed.

Cyril (originally Constantine) and Methodius were brothers, from a noble family in Thessalonika, a district in northeastern Greece. Constantine was the younger, born in about 827, and his brother Methodius in about 825. 

Their father Leo, a man of noble origin, was a dignitary in service of the Salonika Greek strategus. They both entered the priesthood. Constantine undertook a mission to the Arabs, and then became a professor of philosophy at the imperial school in Constantinople and librarian at the cathedral of Santa Sophia. In the Constantinople imperial court  Constantine-Cyril (about 827-869) excelled in his learning and was often sent on important missions to the Saracens and the Hasars. Methodius (815-885) became governor of a district that had been settled by Slavs. Both brothers then retired to monastic life. Methodius was Father Superior of the monastery of Polychron in Vitinia, Asia Minor, where, when the Slavonic script was conceived by Cyril, the two brothers made the first translations of the major liturgical books from Greek into Slavonic.

Undoubtedly, the two Slav apostles knew the Old-Bulgarian language to perfection - this was demonstrated both in the alphabet and in their translations from Greek. “You are Salonikians - addressed them Emperor Michael, - and all Salonikians speak pure Slavonic.”

Both the motives and the exact year in which Constantine-Cyril composed the alphabet (855 or 862-863) lie in obscurity. Some sources evidence that before their departure to Greater Moravia the two brothers taught the Bulgarians, inhabiting the area by the river of Bregalnitza in Macedonia, the Slavonic script, but this fact is not quite certain either. In any case, it is difficult to deny that their letters fully coincided with the sound system of the Old Bulgarian language, which - irrespective of all resemblances - already differed, in one way or another, from the rest of the Slavonic dialects.

In about 861, the Emperor Michel III sent them to work with the Khazars northeast of the Black Sea in the Dnieper-Volga region of what was later Russia. They learned the Khazar language and made many converts, and discovered what were believed to be relics of Clement, an early Bishop of Rome.

In about 863, Prince Rostislav, the ruler of Great Moravia (whose possessions comprised the lands of now the Czech Republic, Slovakia, part of Slovenia and part of Hungary, at that time inhabited by Slav populatio), asked the emperor for missionaries, specifying that he wanted someone who would teach his people in their own language (he had western missionaries, but they used only Latin). The emperor and the Patriarch Photius sent Methodius and his brother Constantine, who translated the Liturgy and much of the Scriptures into Slavonic.

So, Constantine-Cyril and Methodius, accompanied by their disciples, started their mission to Moravia towards 863. Welcomed with open arms by the local prince and his subjects, they were actively engaged in propagating divine worship in the Slavonic language.

Since Slavonic had no written form, they invented an alphabet for it, the Glagolitic alphabet, which gave rise to the Cyrillic alphabet (named for Constantine aka Cyril). Thus the brothers were the first to produce written material in the Slavic languages, and are regarded as the founders of Slavic literature.

Naturally, this rivalry  was not admired by the Western clergymen, predominantly of German origin. The brothers encountered missionaries from Germany, representing the western or Latin branch of the Church, and more particularly representing the Holy Roman Empire as founded by Charlemagne, and committed to linguistic, and cultural uniformity. They insisted on the use of the Latin liturgy, and they regarded Moravia and the Slavic peoples as their rightful mission field. This first mission failed - when friction developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a cause of dissension among Christians, arrived back to Constantinople. From here they set out on a new journey, through Venezia, to Rome to see the Pope, hoping to reach an agreement that would avoid quarreling between missionaries in the field, carrying with them the holy relics of St. Clement I, third bishop of Rome after the Apostles. They arrived in Rome in 868 and were received with honor.  There, Constantine-Cyril succeeded in persuading Pope Adrian II, that, as a church language, Slavonic is as adequate as Greek, Latin, or Jewish - a step more than revolutionary in the context of the then Europe, and an argument already discussed in Venezia. Constantine entered a monastery there, taking the name Cyril, by which he is now remembered. However, he died only a few weeks thereafter (869).. He is buried in Rome in the Church of San Clemente. His tomb in the “San Clemente” basilica has been conserved till the present day and is a place of veneration for many Bulgarians, as well as for other people of Slav origin.

Methodius, consecrated archbishop by the Pope, returned with some of his disciples to his flock in Greater Moravia; outliving his brother by 16 years, he continued his work in increasingly difficult circumstances, produced by the unabating intrigues of the German clergy - the Pope (Adrian II) gave Methodius the title of Archbishop of Sirmium and sent him back in 869, with jurisdiction over all of Moravia and Pannonia, and authorization to use the Slavonic Liturgy. Soon, however, Prince Rostislav, who had originally invited the brothers to Moravia, died, and his successor did not support Methodius. In 870 the Frankish king Louis and his bishops deposed Methodius at a synod at Ratisbon, and imprisoned him for a little over two years.  The pope (John VIII) secured his release, but told him not to use the Slavonic Liturgy any more. In 878 he was summoned to Rome on charges of heresy and using Slavonic. This time Pope John was convinced by his arguments and sent him back cleared of all charges, and with permission to use Slavonic. He died 6 April 885 in Velehrad, the old capitol of Moravia. The Carolingian bishop who succeeded him, Wiching, suppressed the Slavonic Liturgy and forced the followers of Methodius into exile. Many found refuge with King Boris of Bulgaria (852-889), under whom they reorganized a Slavic-speaking Church. Meanwhile, Pope John's successors adopted a Latin-only policy which lasted for centuries.

Immediately after his death in Moravia in 885, his followers were put to persecution, arrests, and tortures, and were finally driven away from the country. In Greater Moravia the Slavonic script and liturgy were gradually ousted by the Latin.

In 886 the two brothers’ disciples, who had survived, set forth to Bulgaria, the country that had been converted to Christianity two decades before. Here they were received with honours by Bulgaria’s prince and baptizer Boris I.

Having received his blessing and support in the capital city of Preslav, as well as in Bulgaria’s south-western parts, in Macedonia and Ohrid, the adherents of the two brothers from Salonika founded two great literary and spiritual schools. Thus, for example, St. Clement (about 838-916) who was sent to Macedonia, and who is known to have been Bulgarian in origin, for only 7 years educated ... 3500 pupils!

In this way, after the failed mission of Methodius and his disciples in Greater Moravia, the Slavonic script, as well as  the Old Bulgarian language and liturgy developed freely and in full force in Bulgaria. It was from here that in the following centuries they spread to Serbia, Croatia, Kievan Russia, Lithuania, Wallachia, Moldavia, etc.

The creation of a new alphabet, designed for a particular language, would generally engage the efforts of many generations. If the other European alphabets were the result of a long evolution, Constantine-Cyril devised his script by one single act.

The apostle of Slavs was not only creator of their script. Together with his brother Methodius and his disciples he was the man who made the first  translations into the new written language, elevating it to the sacral level of Jewish, Latin and Greek.

In this sense, the work of Constantine-Cyril, the Philosopher, left a lasting imprint on the Christian fate of Eastern Europe. It became incorporated in the struggles between the Eastern and the Western church for their diocese, and delineated the zones of religious confessions, which have marked the cultural boundaries of the continent for centuries, until the present day.

Embassy of Bulgaria
May 10, 2004
New Delhi