Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were brothers and 9th century Christian missionaries. They Christianized the Slavic peoples of the Danube.[1] They influenced the culture and religion of all Slavic peoples.[1] They received the title "Apostles to the Slavs".
Secular lives
The brothers were both born in Thessalonica. Methodios was born c. 815 or 826 and died in 885.[2] Cyril was born c. 826 and died (under his adopted name Constantine) in 869.[2] Cyril was educated at the university at Constantinople under Photios I of Constantinople. He later taught there when he replaced Photios. Methodios became governor of the province of Opsikion at about the same time.[2]
Missionaries
In 861 the Byzantine Emperor Michael III sent the two brothers to convert the Khazars to Christianity.[2] They continued their religious conversion of the Tatars along the Black Sea for two years.[3] Afterwards the Emperor Michael sent them to Moravia as missionaries. They taught in the Slavic languages and translated the Scriptures into Slavonic. Cyril invented an alphabet called the Glagolitic alphabet.[4] This became the basis for the Cyrillic alphabet. Old Church Slavonic was written in Cyrillic and Glagolitic.[5]
Cyril And Methodius Media
Cyril and Methodius, painting by Jan Matejko, 1885
Saint Cyril and Methodius by Stanislav Dospevski, Bulgarian painter
The Baška tablet is an early example of the Glagolitic from Croatia
Saints Cyril and Methodius procession
Basilica of St.Cyril and Methodius in Moravian Velehrad, Czech Republic
Cross Procession in Khanty-Mansiysk on Saints Cyril and Methodius Day in May 2006
Inauguration of the monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius in Saratov on Slavonic Literature and Culture Day
Thessaloniki - monument of the two Saints gift from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lorraine Murray, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia (New York: Britannica Educational Publishing/Rosen Educational Services, LLC, 2014), p. 35
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998), p. 56
- ↑ Matthew Bunson, Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic History (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2004), p. 269
- ↑ Tanya Popovic, Prince Marko: The Hero of South Slavic Epics (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988), p. 188
- ↑ The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity, ed. Ken Parry (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p. 231