July 7
Sts. Cyril and Methodius (d. 885)
Cyril and Methodius were brothers, sons of a high senatorial family of Thessalonica. Methodius, the elder of the two brothers, became governor of a Slavic colony in Macedonia. A scholar, philosopher and linguist, Cyril became a monk in Bithynia. In 861 the Byzantine Emperor sent Cyril on a mission into the Dneiper-Volga regions of Russia to convert the Jewish Khazars, barbarians of south Russia. His brother Methodius accompanied him and they returned to their monastery after a successful mission.
At about the same time, the Prince of Moravia asked the Emperor to send missionaries to convert his people. Since both brothers knew the Slavonic tongue, Emperor Michael III sent Cyril and Methodius there in 863. They taught the Moravians how to write, and they composed a new alphabet for them called Cyrillic, which marked the beginning of Slavonic literature. The alphabet is still used among the Russians.
Then the brothers translated the Bible and liturgical books into Slavonic, the common language of the peoples of the area and organized numerous Catholic communities in Bohemia and Hungary. In 868 they arrived in Rome and were warmly received by Pope Adrian II, who made them Bishops and allowed them to say the Mass in Slavonic. Cyril died while he was in Rome at age 42, and he was buried in the Church of St. Clement.
Methodius returned alone to Great Moravia, and was named Archbishop of Cyrinium in Serbia. He found many enemies in the Hierarchy who persecuted him and placed obstacles to his work because they opposed the Mass being said in Slavonic. Accusing him of heresy, they imprisoned him and held him captive for three years. Pope John VII came to his defense, and finally St. Methodius triumphed over his adversaries. He died in 885 with great manifestations of love by the people. His funeral was celebrated in Greek, Latin, and Slavonic. Cyril and Methodius received the title Apostles of the Slavs.
Their feast day was extended to the universal Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1880.
