(Or CONSTANTINE and METHODIUS).
These brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, were born in
Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively. Though belonging to a
senatorial family they renounced secular honours and became priests.
They were living in a monastery on the Bosphorous, when the Khazars sent
to Constantinople for a Christian teacher. Cyril was selected and was
accompanied by his brother. They learned the Khazar language and
converted many of the people. Soon after the Khazar mission there was a
request from the Moravians for a preacher of the Gospel. German
missionaries had already laboured among them, but without success. The
Moravians wished a teacher who could instruct them and conduct Divine
service in the Slavonic tongue. On account of their acquaintance with
the language, Cyril and Methodius were chosen for their work. In
preparation for it Cyril invented an alphabet and, with the help of
Methodius, translated the Gospels and the necessary liturgical books
into Slavonic. They went to Moravia in 863, and laboured for four and a
half years. Despite their success, they were regarded by the Germans
with distrust, first because they had come from Constantinople where
schism was rife, and again because they held the Church services in the
Slavonic language. On this account the brothers were summoned to Rome by
Nicholas I, who died, however, before their arrival. His successor,
Adrian II, received them kindly. Convinced of their orthodoxy, he
commended their missionary activity, sanctioned the Slavonic Liturgy,
and ordained Cyril and Methodius bishops. Cyril, however, was not to
return to Moravia. He died in Rome, 4 Feb., 869.
At the request of the Moravian princes, Rastislav and Svatopluk,
and the Slav Prince Kocel of Pannonia, Adrian II formed an Archdiocese
of Moravia and Pannonia, made it independent of the German Church, and
appointed Methodius archbishop. In 870 King Louis and the German bishops
summoned Methodius to a synod at Ratisbon. Here he was deposed and
condemned to prison. After three years he was liberated at the command
of Pope John VIII and reinstated as Archbishop of Moravia. He zealously
endeavoured to spread the Faith among the Bohemians, and also among the
Poles in Northern Moravia. Soon, however, he was summoned to Rome again
in consequence of the allegations of the German priest Wiching, who
impugned his orthodoxy, and objected to the use of Slavonic in the
liturgy. But John VIII, after an inquiry, sanctioned the Slavonic
Liturgy, decreeing, however, that in the Mass the Gospel should be read
first in Latin and then in Slavonic. Wiching, in the meantime, had been
nominated one of the suffragan bishops of Methodius. He continued to
oppose his metropolitan, going so far as to produce spurious papal
letters. The pope, however, assured Methodius that they were false.
Methodius went to Constantinople about this time, and with the
assistance of several priests, he completed the translation of the Holy
Scriptures, with the exception of the Books of Machabees. He translated
also the "Nomocanon", i.e. the Greek ecclesiastico-civil law. The
enemies of Methodius did not cease to antagonize him. His health was
worn out from the long struggle, and he died 6 April, 885, recommending
as his successor Gorazd, a Moravian Slav who had been his disciple.
L. Abraham (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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