Saturday, February 14, 2009

Saint of the Day

On the day of 14 February

The commemoration of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop. These brothers from Thessalonica, having been sent by bishop Photius of Constantinople to Moravia, preached the Christian faith there and fashioned their own alphabetic characters so that they could translate the sacred books from Greek into the Slavic language. When they had come to Rome, Cyril who had previously been called Constantine, became a monk and, suffering from illness, fell asleep in the Lord on the this very day. Methodius, ordained bishop of Syrmia by Pope Adrian II, indefatigably evangelized Pannonia, for the same endured being brought into many disputes but always remained united with the Roman Pontiff; he received the reward of his labors at Velehrad in Morvia on the sixth day of April.

At Rome, on the Via Flaminia, near the Milvian Bridge, Saint Valentine, martyr.