Saints This Month - Cyril and Methodius

Saint Cyril and his brother, Saint Methodius, were both born in Thessalonica in the early years of the 9th century. Both became priests, Methodius as a monk and Cyril already as a missionary to the area North of the Black Sea. In the 850s, Cyril was also called on to engage in dialogue with Muslim theologians from the Abbasid Caliphate on the nature of the Holy Trinity - a reminder that interreligious dialogue isn't such a new idea after all!

In 862, however, both brothers found themselves called upon by the Byzantine Emperor, who had been asked to send missionaries to the Slavic kingdom of Greater Moravia (roughly the modern Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia). Though they were Greek, they had grown up in a Slavic speaking area, and their knowledge of the language, combined with their theological ability and missionary zeal, made them an ideal choice. Immediately, they set about translating the Scriptures into Slavonic, inventing a new alphabet for the purpose, so that even today the alphabet many Slavic languages are written in is called Cyrillic.

After an initial success, and having acquired several close disciples, the brothers found themselves coming into conflict with German clergy, who felt these Greeks were trespassing on "their patch". Cyril and Methodius travelled to Rome to seek the support of the Pope, which they duly obtained. While in Rome, St Cyril died, and was buried in the Basilica of St Clement, which is now in the care of the Irish Dominicans. Meanwhile, St Methodius continued his mission in Moravia alone, being made bishop shortly afterwards, and continuing to spread the knowledge of the Gospel by promoting translations of liturgical as well as scriptural texts into the language of the Slavic people.

Following the death of St Methodius, his disciples were driven out of Moravia by the German clergy, finding refuge in the Bulgarian kingdom. However, in a sense, their work had been done: thanks to the missionary effort of SS Cyril and Methodius the Western Slavic peoples had received the faith, and within 100 years of their death, all the Slavic nations became Christian.

These brothers, then, are a great example to us as missionaries, with their zeal to bring the contents of the faith, and especially the Scriptures, to the people to whom they preached. They were not deterred by political intrigue, and give us an example, in the words of Pope John Paul II, of the "two lungs" of the Church, East and West, breathing together to advance the work of the Gospel. Thus it is that these two brothers are venerated by the Eastern Churches as 'equal to the Apostles', and in the West as Patrons of Europe.