Saints Cyril, monk and Methodius, bishop (February 14th)

Of the various Saints and Feast Days commemorated during this week:

February 10th -- Saint Scholastica, Virgin 

February 11th -- Our Lady of Lourdes

February 14th -- Saints Cyril, Monk and Methodius, Bishop 

February 14th -- St. Valentine, Priest or Bishop and Martyr

February 15th – 6th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (A)

I’ve decided to write this week about Saints Cyril and Methodius.

The two brothers, originally named Constantine and Michael, but later taking on religious names of Cyril and Methodius, were born in the early 800s AD in  Thessalonica in the Macedonian region of Greece during the time of the Byzantine Empire. 

First some words about the historical-cultural context into which the two future saints were born: 

There remains a question, relevant even today, whether the two were of Slavic or Greek descent or both.   

Macedonia as a kingdom existed in antiquity since _before_ the time of Alexander the Great, who was, famously, Macedonian.   Then Thessalonica where the two future saints were born was both visited St. Paul in his missionary voyages and two of his letters were addressed to the Christian community there .  

In modern times, the geographic region of Macedonia encompasses both northern Greece, and south-western (slavic speaking) Bulgaria as well as an entire small (slavic speaking) nation now called North Macedonia which had once been a part of Yugoslavia.

So even today there are both Greek and Slavic speaking Macedonians.  That these two future Saints would become involved in missionary work directed toward the Slavs and would even invent an alphabet which came to be called Cyrillic which was adapted from the Greek alphabet would indicate that the two were quite familiar with both Greek and Slavic languages.

Cyril and Methodius also lived at a time of crossroads in the history of the Byzantine Empire.  On one hand, the Byzantine-Christian control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land to the south of Constantinople and the Byzantine heartland of Greece and Asia Minor had been lost to the Arabs in 637 AD.  On the other hand, there were opportunities for the Byzantine Empire to expand its influence to the north and to the east where the Slavs were settling.  

Finally, after some 400-500 years of practical irrelevance, the Christian world of the West whose center remained in Rome, which had been both the capital of the by then long defunct Western Roman Empire and remained the seat of the Church of Rome (Catholic Church) was beginning to reassert itself during the time of the Saints Cyril and Methodius with the rise of Carolingian Empire founded by Charlemagne (crowned by the Pope as Emperor in Rome on Christmas Day, 800 AD).   This new social-political-religious (Catholic) entity, mostly Latin-Germanic in ethnicity and language began to exert influence on the Slavic tribes to its East (and to the North of the Byzantine (Greek / Christian Orthodox) world).  

This then would describe the historical and cultural context into which the two brothers were born.

Now few particular details about the family of the future Saints Cyril and Methodius: 

As was often the case for Saints of this period, the brothers were born into a family that appeared to be relatively wealthy and well connected.  Yet it is perhaps significant that the “elite” group to which their family seemed to be most connected was Byzantine society’s intellectual class, its “intelligencia” as it were:

When their father died, the two brothers were taken into the care of two significant officials / noblemen Theoktistos and Bardas, who founded what came to be known as the Imperial University of Constantinople (or of the Palace Hall of the Magnuara).  Indeed, one of the two brothers, the future St. Cyril, who became the inventor of the first version of the aforementioned Cyrillic alphabet came to teach at that school.

The two brothers, of course, became most renowned for their missionary work in Great Moravia, an emerging Slavic state in central Europe, whose territory encompassed today’s Czech Republic, Slovakia, eastern Austria and most of Hungary.  At the behest of Great Moravia’s ruler Prince Rostislav, the Byzantine Emperor Michael III sent the two there to solidify its Christian faith.

But the mission of the the two brothers was fraught with various political challenges:  Prince Rostislav made the request of the Byzantine Emperor in hopes of delineating a certain independence of his realm from the post-Carolignian kingdom of East Francia, which had already sent Latin-Rite missionaries to his realm from the West, from the already established, East Francian Archidoceses of Salzburg and Passau.  

After their arrival, the future Saints Cyril and Methodius, created a Slavonic language Rite, derived from the Byzantine Rite for the slavic speaking people of Great Moravia.  

This was exactly what the Prince Rostislav and later his son Prince Svatopluk wanted.  However, it produced immediate challenges from both East Francia and the Latin-rite clergy from the Archidoceses of Salzburg and Passau.  

Believing that they could smooth things out, the two appealed to Pope John VIII in Rome, and travelled there.  They also came with “a gift”, a relic from Constantinople of the early Christian pope and martyr St. Clement of Rome.  

While in Rome, several things happened:  

First, the future St. Cyril died there.  He remains interred at the beautiful Byzantine styled St. Clement Basilica in Rome.

Second, the future St. Methodius was able to return to his Mission in Great Moravia as an archbishop, the Pope having declared Moravia to be its own archdiocese _independent_ of both the Archdioceses of Salzburg and Passau.  So no more meddling of the clergy from those two dioceses, going a long way to recognize the independence then of the slavic lands of “Great Moravia” from the established and largely ethnically germanic kingdom East Francia.    

However third, the Pope _also_ asked the future St. Methodius to suppress the Slavonic Rite that he and his brother had created and use only the Latin Rite in liturgical celebrations.  The future St. Methodius could not bring himself to do this, which caused him a good deal of difficulty, including times of exile from his Mission in Great Moravia, during the remainder of his life.

Still the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius is recognized as having definitively opened the doors to Christianization of the Slavic peoples while also recognizing their dignity and independence. 

To this day there remain frictions between Latin and Eastern (Slavonic) Rite Christians across the slavic world.  However the languages and cultures of the Slavic peoples remain both preserved and respected.  

The two saints become therefore a reminder to us of the sometimes messiness of earthly life, even as we both promote the Gospel and defend the dignity of all people and peoples.

 

Saints Cyril and Methodius, pray for us!

Picture - St. Cyril and Methodius from Troyan Monastery