February 14, 2003
Sts. Cyril and Methodius
(d. 869; d. 884)
Because their father was an officer in a part of Greece inhabited by many Slavs, these
two Greek brothers ultimately became missionaries, teachers and patrons of the Slavic
peoples.
After a brilliant course of studies, Cyril (called Constantine until he became a monk
shortly before his death) refused the governorship of a district such as his brother
had accepted among the Slavic-speaking population. He withdrew to a monastery where
his brother Methodius had become a monk after some years in a governmental post.
A decisive change in their lives occurred when the Duke of Moravia (present-day Czech
Republic) asked the Eastern Emperor Michael for political independence from German
rule and ecclesiastical autonomy (having their own clergy and liturgy). Cyril and
Methodius undertook the missionary task.
Cyril’s first work was to invent an alphabet, still used in some Eastern liturgies.
His followers probably formed the Cyrillic alphabet (for example, modern Russian) from
Greek capital letters. Together they translated the Gospels, the psalter, Paul’s
letters and the liturgical books into Slavonic, and composed a Slavonic liturgy,
highly irregular then.
That and their free use of the vernacular in preaching led to opposition from the
German clergy. The bishop refused to consecrate Slavic bishops and priests, and Cyril
was forced to appeal to Rome. On the visit to Rome, he and Methodius had the joy of
seeing their new liturgy approved by Pope Adrian II. Cyril, long an invalid, died in
Rome 50 days after taking the monastic habit.
Methodius continued mission work for 16 more years. He was papal legate for all the
Slavic peoples, consecrated a bishop and then given an ancient see (now in the Czech
Republic). When much of their former territory was removed from their jurisdiction,
the Bavarian bishops retaliated with a violent storm of accusation against Methodius.
As a result, Emperor Louis the German exiled Methodius for three years. Pope John VIII
secured his release.
The Frankish clergy, still smarting, continued their accusations, and Methodius had to
go to Rome to defend himself against charges of heresy and uphold his use of the
Slavonic liturgy. He was again vindicated.
Legend has it that in a feverish period of activity, Methodius translated the whole
Bible into Slavonic in eight months. He died on Tuesday of Holy Week, surrounded by
his disciples, in his cathedral church.
Opposition continued after his death, and the work of the brothers in Moravia was
brought to an end and their disciples scattered. But the expulsions had the beneficial
effect of spreading the spiritual, liturgical and cultural work of the brothers to
Bulgaria, Bohemia and southern Poland. Patrons of Moravia, and specially venerated by
Catholic Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Orthodox Serbians and Bulgarians, Cyril and
Methodius are eminently fitted to guard the long-desired unity of East and West. In
1980, Pope John Paul II named them additional co-patrons of Europe (with Benedict).
PATRONAGE:
Bohemia, Bulgaria,Czechoslovakia,ecumenism,Moravia,Unity of Eastern and Western
Churches,Yugoslavia
Comment:
Holiness means reacting to human life with God’s love: human life as it is,
crisscrossed with the political and the cultural, the beautiful and the ugly, the
selfish and the saintly. For Cyril and Methodius much of their daily cross had to do
with the language of the liturgy. They are not saints because they got the liturgy
into Slavonic, but because they did so with the courage and humility of Christ.
REFLECTION:
“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” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 37, 38).
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