Cyril and Methodius


Cyril and Methodius
"Saints Cyril and Methodius holding the Cyrillic alphabet," a mural by Bulgarian iconographer Z. Zograf, 1848, Troyan Monastery
Bishops and Confessors; Equals to the Apostles; Patrons of Europe; Apostles to the Slavs
Born826 or 827 and 815
Thessalonica, Byzantine Empire (present-day Greece)
Died(869-02-14)14 February 869 and (885-04-06)6 April 885
Rome and Velehrad, Great Moravia
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Catholic Church
Anglican Communion[1]
Lutheranism[2]
Feast11 and 24 May[3] (Eastern Orthodox Church)
14 February (present Roman Catholic calendar); 5 July (Roman Catholic calendar 1880–1886); 7 July (Roman Catholic calendar 1887–1969)
5 July (Roman Catholic and Lutheran Czech Republic and Slovakia)
AttributesBrothers depicted together; Eastern bishops holding up a church; Eastern bishops holding an icon of the Last Judgment.[4] Often, Cyril is depicted wearing a monastic habit and Methodius vested as a bishop with omophorion.
PatronageBulgaria, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Transnistria, Serbia, Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Europe,[4] Slovak Eparchy of Toronto, Eparchy of Košice[5]

Cyril (Greek: Κύριλλος, romanizedKýrillos; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (Μεθόδιος, Methódios; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs".[6]

They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic.[7] After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Eastern 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 Rite of the Catholic Church. In 1980, the first Slav pope, Pope John Paul II declared them co-patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia.[8]

  1. ^ "Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries, 869, 885". The Episcopal Church. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Notable Lutheran Saints". Resurrectionpeople.org. Archived from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  3. ^ In the 21st century this date in the Julian Calendar corresponds to 24 May in the Gregorian Calendar
  4. ^ a b Jones, Terry. "Methodius". Patron Saints Index. Archived from the original on 19 February 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
  5. ^ History of the Eparchy of Košice Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine (Slovak)
  6. ^ "Figures of (trans-) national religious memory of the Orthodox southern Slavs before 1945: an outline on the examples of SS. Cyril and Methodius". ResearchGate. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  7. ^ Liturgy of the Hours, Volume III, 14 February.
  8. ^ "Egregiae Virtutis". Archived from the original on 4 January 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2009. Apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II, 31 December 1980 (in Latin)