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feast day: February 14
patron of: unity of Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman Catholic) Churches, Ecumenism, Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia, Czech Republic (including Bohemia, and Moravia), Slovakia, Transnistria, Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Europe
about:
- born: 827 and 826 - Thessaloniki, Byzantine Empire (present-day Greece)
- died: February 14, 869 and 6 April 885
- Saints Cyril and Methodius (Greek: Κύριλλος καὶ Μεθόδιος, Old Church Slavonic: Кѷриллъ и Меѳодїи) were 9th-century Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessalonica, Macedonia, in the Byzantine Empire. They were the principal Christian missionaries among the Slavic peoples of the Great Moravia and Pannonia, introducing Orthodox Christianity and writing to the hitherto illiterate, pagan Slav migrants into parts of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Balkans. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title "Apostles to the Slavs". They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic. After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Orthodox Church as saints with the title of "equal-to-apostles". In 1880, Pope Leo XIII introduced their feast into the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1980, Pope John Paul II declared them co-patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia.
- attributes: brothers depicted together; Eastern bishops holding up a church; Eastern bishops holding an icon of the Last Judgment. Often, Cyril is depicted wearing a monastic habit and Methodius vested as a bishop with omophorion.
quote:
“Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not involve the faith or the good of the whole community. Rather she respects and fosters the spiritual adornments and gifts of the various races and peoples.... Provided that the substantial unity of the Roman rite is maintained, the revision of liturgical books should allow for legitimate variations and adaptations to different groups, religions, and peoples, especially in mission lands” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 37, 38).
links/ sources:
- "Sts. Cyril and Methodius" (Catholic Encyclopedia):
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04592a.htm
- "Saints Cyril and Methodius" (Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius
- "Sts. Cyril & Methodius" (EWTN):
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcyrilandmethodius.asp
- "Sts. Cyril and Methodius" (American Catholic):
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1291
- "Sts. Cyril and Methodius" (Catholic Online):
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=39
- "Cyril and Methodius" (Orthodox Wiki):
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Cyril_and_Methodius
