Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius, Saints. — Greek brothers, known as the “Apostles of the Slavs”; they lived in the 9th century.
I. AT CONSTANTINOPLE
Cyril and Methodius were born at Thessalonica to the noble magistrate Leo. After their father’s early death, the imperial chancellor Theoktistos took the brothers under his protection. Methodius, a practised jurist, was entrusted with the administration of a province inhabited by Slavs, probably Macedonia.The younger brother, Constantine (who took the name Cyril on becoming a monk), was summoned by Theoktistos to Constantinople to be educated together with the young Emperor Michael III, among whose tutors were Leo the Mathematician and Photius, the future patriarch. On completing his studies, Constantine refused a court career, received Holy Orders, and was appointed patriarchal librarian. But soon afterwards he secretly withdrew to a monastery. When found, he refused to return to the librarianship, yet accepted the chair of philosophy, in which he so distinguished himself that he earned the surname “the Philosopher.” At this time he went as imperial ambassador to the court of the Caliph of Baghdad.
Meanwhile the year 855 brought important political changes. Bardas, uncle of the Emperor Michael and likewise an enemy of Theoktistos, succeeded in winning the young emperor’s full confidence and had Theoktistos put to death. The empress-mother Theodora was forced to retire from government and later confined in a monastery. Under Michael III the direction of state affairs effectively passed into Bardas’s hands. The tragic end of Theoktistos and Theodora, protectors of Cyril and Methodius, had grave consequences for them also. Methodius resigned his post and became a monk in a monastery on Mount Olympus in Bithynia. Cyril too withdrew from public life and soon joined his brother on Olympus, where both devoted themselves to prayer and study. The political changes likewise had their repercussions in the ecclesiastical sphere. In 858 the patriarch Ignatius was deposed and Photius, Bardas’s friend and counsellor, was elected in his place.
Cyril and Methodius kept aloof from this painful conflict. About 860 the emperor entrusted Cyril with a politico-religious mission to the Khazars, who then dwelt on the Black Sea coast between the Don and the Caucasus. Cyril had to comply with the imperial order and set out, accompanied by Methodius. While stopping at Cherson in the Crimea he took an interest in the tomb of St Clement, pope and martyr. Having identified the traditional site, Cyril recovered the relics of St Clement and took them with him. The mission achieved its immediate purpose: many Khazars received baptism and the khan formed a friendship with the emperor. On returning to Constantinople, Cyril settled near the church of the Holy Apostles, while Methodius retired to the monastery of Polychronius, of which he became abbot.
II. MISSION IN MORAVIA
Meanwhile an embassy arrived at Constantinople from Prince Rastislav (846–60), ruler of Great Moravia, requesting a bishop and missionaries who could speak the language of his people. Moravia was already partly Christianized through the efforts of Western missionaries, who, while spreading the Christian faith, were also promoting the expansion of the German Empire. Rastislav wished to free his state from German episcopal influence and to secure for Moravia its own hierarchical organization. The emperor chose Cyril and Methodius for this mission because, being natives of Thessalonica, they were well acquainted with the Slavonic tongue. At that time neither the Moravians nor the other Slav peoples possessed any literature of their own. Before setting out, therefore, Cyril composed a new alphabet and began to translate the sacred books into Old Slavonic. In 863, accompanied by Methodius and some disciples, he set out for Moravia, bearing an imperial letter of recommendation.In Moravia Cyril and Methodius devoted themselves chiefly to preaching and to the training of a young native clergy. With Methodius’s help, Cyril translated into Old Slavonic not only Byzantine liturgical texts but also some Latin ones. Preaching and celebrating the sacred rites in a language understood by the people met with great success, but it also aroused the hostility of the German clergy, who accused Cyril and Methodius before the Holy See of heresy. After about three and a half years of missionary activity in Moravia,
With some chosen disciples, they went to Rome. They were solemnly received by Pope Adrian II (867–72) because they brought with them the relics of St. Clement. The Pope, informed of their activity in Moravia, recognized the orthodoxy of C. and M. and approved the use of the Old Slavonic language in the liturgy. M. was ordained a priest, and C. probably a bishop. Meanwhile, C. fell gravely ill. During his illness, he took the monastic habit. C. died on 14 February 869 and was buried in the basilica of St. Clement.
After negotiations with the princes of Moravia and Pannonia, the Pope appointed M. Archbishop of Sirmium and sent him to Moravia as papal legate. While returning, M. was arrested and imprisoned after a sham trial held in a synod attended, among others, by Adalwin of Salzburg, Anon of Freising, and Ermenrich of Passau. Only after three years, thanks to the energetic intervention of the new Pope John VIII (872–82), was M. released and returned to Moravia. But he was again accused in Rome of heresy, especially through the efforts of the German priest Viching, who managed to win the favor of Prince Svatopluk (870–94), successor of Rostislav. M. went again to Rome, where he fully justified himself, while the Slavonic liturgy was once more approved. Moravia received its own hierarchical organization under M.; but Viching, thanks to the protection of Svatopluk, obtained the suffragan see of Nitra. M. devoted the rest of his life to consolidating the ecclesiastical organization through extensive literary activity. But his treacherous suffragan Viching succeeded in completely alienating Svatopluk from M. and, through various intrigues, embittered the final years of his archbishop. M. died on 6 April 885, after designating as his successor his disciple, the Moravian nobleman Gorazd.