About the ancient canons of Saints Cyril and Methodius

The enlighteners of the Slavic world, Cyril and Methodius, for their services to the Church and God-pleasing life, soon after their death, were canonized by the Church as Saints. The first sign of respect of the grateful Slavic peoples for their memory, as the memory of men who pleased the Lord, can be read by compiling the lives of St. Cyril, then St. Methodius. After this, we find their names in the month books along with the names of other Saints revered by the Church; We also find some hymns written in their honor: but the founders of Slavic worship, which would have come down to us from ancient times, were not yet aware of a complete church service. In the service menaions of the Moscow Synodal Library, but the letter belonging to the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century, the complete service of St. Cyril (February 14), and the canon to both enlighteners (April 6) 2. Let us get acquainted with both services, paying attention primarily to those hymns in which there are indications of the circumstances of the life of St. Cyril and Methodius 3. Service of St. Cyril, placed in the February Menaion, contains: sedalene, three stichera (I cried to the Lord) and a canon. The canon consists of 8 cantos: each has three troparions and the Theotokos; Only in the 8th canto there are two troparions. Service of St. Kirill is richer in historical indications and the language seems older than the service of April 6th. In it you can find confirmation of many circumstances mentioned in the life of the Saint. Creator of the canon of St. Kirill recalls a vision that in his life refers to the first years of his life. Kirill, when he was still six or seven years old, saw that some governor, having gathered a lot of girls, invited him to choose one or the other, and he chose Sophia - wisdom. This is how it is presented in the canon: “I loved wisdom from my youth, you accepted a sister, and God, blessed, became wise, you appeared as a philosopher” (canto 6). The very name of wisdom as sister is taken from the instructions of the parents of St. Kirill, who, explaining the vision to him, inspired him: “Keep, child, what you saw. The governor who has gathered the maidens is an Angel of God; the chosen maiden is pure wisdom. May this wisdom be yours, child, sister,” - This idea about the betrothal of wisdom to Constantine, from childhood, is also expressed in the troparion of St. Cyril, who came down to us in the Serbian prologue of the 13th century. The legend about wisdom led the creator of the canon to think about that worldwide invitation to the Wisdom of God, which Solomon speaks of in the book of Proverbs: having dissolved wine in her cup, She sent to everyone with a high preaching: let him who is foolish turn aside to me (Proverbs 9:4). Among the few who heeded this invitation from a young age, the hymnist sees St. Cyril, and this early acquaintance with the wisdom of God explains everything that he acquired for himself and that he did for others. The canon says: “Break the cup of God’s wisdom into your mouth, drink in the drunkenness of salvation: understand the light of showing the tongue and the ax, cutting off all flattery of hostility.” That is, having put your mouth to the cup of the Wisdom of God, you have been filled with the saving drink: and in your knowledge you have shown the light to the nations, and the ax that defeats all the deceit of the enemy (item 1.). This troparion is reminiscent of the church hymn to St. Gregory the Theologian: “bringing your honest mouth closer to the wisdom of the cup, Father Gregory, you drew Divine water from theology” 4. Of the gifts of wisdom with which St. was enriched. Cyril, the hymnist, especially praises his ability to present his teachings in parables. Many troparia of the canon point to this gift, which is especially attractive to the simple minds of its listeners. Eg. “The proverbial sword is revealed in truth, blessed Kiril, the voice is saved by the holy spiritual sounds, rattling brightly, driving away sleep.” That is, Blessed Kirill! proclaiming salvation in parables, truly you appeared as a holy horse, and, beautifully rattling, drove away sleep with sacred and spiritual sounds (item 3.). Also: “about the mind of fire, about the sound of the trumpet, about the song of glory, about the gusset of the verbiage, about the tongue of the sweetness of honey in the proverbs, Cyril the Wise, remember us all” (ibid.). - Life of St. Cyril actually contains quite a few experiences in providing an accurate explanation of the truth, in disputes with heretics and non-believers. When he was with the Khazars, the Kagan himself challenged him to present the superiority of Christian teaching over any other in some kind of comparison, so that the truth would be revealed to simple and uneducated minds in indisputable clarity and strength. And Kirill complied with Kagan’s wishes. The compiler of the canon does not forget, however, about natural ways to acquire wisdom. He remembers Constantine’s resettlement from Thessaloniki to Constantinople and his training here with glorious mentors. “Another Abraham, transmigrated, blessed, having become from his fatherhood the lust of Wisdom greater, as if you were adorned with golden monists, shining brightly with rays of radiance.” That is, at the desire of greater wisdom, having migrated from the fatherland, like the second Abraham, and having been adorned with it, like golden monists, you, blessed one, all shine with bright rays (item 4). – In Constantinople, as life tells, Constantine studied with the young king, and their mentors were Leo and Photius, later the Patriarch of Constantinople. The student Photiev, after the general education of all, especially devoted himself to the study of the word of God. In him he found confirmation of his faith, the support of his Orthodoxy, and he later proclaimed it to the peoples wandering in the darkness of ignorance. “O Holy Spirit, draw from the abyss God’s good words of faith, wise, precious beads, books, blessed, and sanctify the tongues of God’s law.” That is, by the Holy Spirit, you, wise one, extracted from the abyss of God’s words the precious beads of blogoverie, and you, blessed one, sanctified the peoples with the books of the law of God (item 1.). Glorious for his wisdom and his theological knowledge, Cyril, even in his youth, appeared as a defender of Orthodoxy in a dispute with the iconoclast John, who was deprived of the patriarchal throne for his heretical thoughts. This dispute, apparently, is indicated by the creator of the canon in the following troparion: “You have pierced the copy of your words, as if you had pierced Zambria; The meaning of this troparion, rather obscurely expressed and partly damaged by the scribes 5, can be conveyed in the following words: with a copy of your words, like Zamri, you painfully pierced the one who, having attached himself to the carnal wickedness of Midian, rejected the bodily image of Jesus, who appeared among the Jews in the flesh (item 4.). The creator of the canon compares the iconoclast with Zimri, who was seduced into the wickedness of Midian, whom Phinehas struck with a spear (Num. 25:7–14). According to this memory from Jewish history, and because of the contrast between the Midian and the Jewish, as between the wicked and the pure, and with the name of the Lord Jesus, the name of the Jewish people is placed 6. There is no indication in the canon of Cyril’s debate with the Saracens in the east: but his actions in the Crimea, his struggle either with the Mohammedans or with the Jews among the Khazars are spoken of repeatedly in different songs of the canon. “Let us venerate Agarineh, like the serpent of the living (?) in parables, three thousand thousand and the one Godhead, exhausted by the power.” That is, the Host, attached to the Hagarians like a serpent, is deadened by your parables, driven into exhaustion by the power of the three-solar and one Deity (item 6.). From the life it is clear that at that time the Khazars were carried away on the one hand by the Mohammedans, and on the other by the Jews to their faith. And St. Kirill had to fight with both. One of the Khazars actually asked him a question about the veneration of St. Trinity, and Cyril answered him with a parable, which is hinted at in the above troparion. But the debate between Cyril and the Jews was especially long. He cited many prophetic sayings against them, which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ; many had to resolve their questions and objections. And with his victorious wisdom he aroused such hatred among the Jews against himself that they sought his life. The compiler of the canon points to this, saying: “not being afraid, the teacher, as a warrior, will enter into the Jewish culture, but their people have been destroyed by their wisdom, as if they were Canaanites, with prophetic parables.” That is, you were not afraid, teacher, to enter the Jewish regiment alone militantly and with prophetic instructions you destroyed the pillar created by their popular wisdom, like the Halan pillar (Gen. 10:10, 11:2, 4) (Song. 7.). The hymn-singer again recalls this triumph over the unfaithful sons of Israel in the following words: “When the Jews were disdained by the sharpness of your words, blessed one, in the cities of Seversk, venerate the kozareh. You, who have no multitude, are cut off, holy teacher, like Goliad David in filth,” that is, the Jewish host, who joined the Khazars in the northern cities, was scattered with the sharp weapon of your word: for you, the holy teacher, coming out against him alone, struck him, as David once did to the pagan Goliath (p. 8.). Moving on to the actions of St. Cyril actually among the Slavic peoples, the singer hints at the fact that these peoples were already partially familiar with Christian teaching, but nevertheless remained in the darkness of unreason until the Greek preachers of the faith enlightened them with books. “Meek with the mercy and wisdom of God, faithful to the teachings and adorned with them, blessed Cyril, the cities and countries are captured by God, holy, enlightened by grace without a savingly ardent understanding. For this sake, the saints sing with them.” That is, meek with mercy and full of God's wisdom, adorned with orthodox teaching, blessed Cyril, you passed through cities and countries captured by God, and with grace you enlightened, holy one, those who had not yet received saving knowledge. Therefore we honor you with sacred songs (verse 2). This was Cyril’s own calling - to preach the law of the Gospel to the Slavs in a language they understood. “Enlightenment, as the light-giver of our God, revealed himself to the whole world as a teacher and sent you to teach the Western languages ​​with the dark books of the law.” That is Our Light-Giver, having endowed you with light like a luminary, revealed in you a teacher to the whole world and sent you to teach the scriptures of the law to the dark peoples of the West (item 1). The creator of the canon says nothing about the invention of St. Cyril wrote for the Slavs: but he mentions the obstacles that the Latin priests opposed to his reasonable gospel. Claiming that it is only permissible to glorify God in church in three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin, they rebelled against the service in the Slavic language introduced by Cyril. For this, Kirill also called them “trilinguals.” This is what the compiler of the canon calls them. “The word and the heart and the tongue of Christ the Son of God is the sermon, and the wisdom and power of the Word flowing, blessed one, strangles the trilinguals with its streams.” That is, with Word, heart and tongue, you preached, blessed one, Christ, the Son of God, Wisdom, Power and the Word made flesh, and with your streams you brought down the tripagans with parables (Song 3.). The name of the opponents of St. Cyril's Tripagans reminds us of another canon, placed in the same menaions of the Synodal Library and belonging to the same time as the canon of St. Kirill 7. This is the canon of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica: it is completely different from that stated in the printed Slavic menaion, and translated from Greek. We hope that this memory will not distract us from the subject, but will allow us to hear the voice of the Thessalonica preachers themselves. In the last song of this canon, St. The following troparia are read to Demetrius: “Hear, O glorious one, thy beggar, now, and be moved, as if we have gone far away from the light of thy church, and burn within our hearts today, and we wish, holy, thy church, and worship whenever with thy prayers.” “Why, wiser, are your poor servants alone deprived of your beauty, for love for the sake of the Dweller in foreign lands and the city going to suffer, blessed, the trilingual and the heretic are fierce warriors.” That is, Hear now, O glorious one, your wretched servants and have pity on us: we have wandered far from your holy church, and our hearts are burning within us with the desire to bow once again to your church, with your prayers. “Why, wise one, we alone, your wretched servants, are deprived of the sight of your beauty, out of love for the Creator, wandering through foreign lands and cities, and enduring, blessed one, fierce attacks from tripagans and heretics. We think that these complaints about the tripagans, an indication of a distant wandering out of love for the Creator and a yearning desire to again see the splendor and shrine of the Church of St. Demetrius, especially excited on the day of his memory (October 26), - all this comes as close as possible to the position of the Thessalonica preacher brothers, and, perhaps, only them. Let's return to the canon of St. Kirill. It remains for us to quote from it the last troparia, which speak of his death and St. his relics." The blessed Paul became a disciple, following his steps, going to the edges of the West, spreading the word among the nations, in Kaon and in Rome, committing his spirit to his God in his hand.” That is, you were an imitator of blessed Paul: following his exploits, you went to the ends of the west, scattering the word among the pagans (in Kaon) and in Rome you gave up your spirit in the hand of your God (p. 9.). The words: “in Kaon and in Rome he gave up his spirit to God” indicate two different sources of information about the place of the death of St. Kirill. According to his life, he died in Rome, according to the prologue, in Caon, an unknown city, where he allegedly was a bishop. But the reference to Kaon, in the canon under consideration, is, of course, a late insertion. But the flow of the singer’s thoughts should only be here: in Rome. For for this purpose he placed the name of the Apostle Paul at the beginning of the troparion, in order both in his activity and in his death to show Cyril’s likeness to this Apostle. Be that as it may, it is clear from this that the legend about the death of St. Cyril in Kaon, contrary to the testimony of life, spread quite early. “Like the sun shining on the earth, to the teacher, everywhere with parables, rays, enlightening the voice of God, singing to you by faith and about the race of those standing near your body.” That is, as the sun, teacher, illuminated the earth, and with the rays of Divine inspirations, with your parables you enlighten those who sing to you in faith and those standing around the shrine of your body. The last words indicate the time when the connection between the newly enlightened country of the hymnist and Rome, where the body of St. Kirill was still in full force. Only then did the disciples of St. Cyril, coming to Rome, could perform chants in honor of their mentor near his tomb. And this, of course, could only happen during the life of St. Methodius. Perhaps this is why neither in the stichera nor in the canon is there a hint of Methodius’ cooperation with his brother. If the service had been composed after the death of St. Moravian Archpastor, then it would be very natural to expect in it some indication of the common labors of the holy brothers, who labored together for the benefit of the Slavic churches. Another canon, placed in the April Menaion, has the following inscription: “to the holy teacher of the Slovenian language, Cyril the Philosopher and Blessed Methodius.” – Following the example of the Greek canons, it has its own acrostic, although this is not noticed in the canon. The acrostic consists of the following words: “I smoked the Philosopher and blessed is the Method I sing.” The canon consists of 8 cantos, each with four troparions and the Theotokos; the last two troparions in each song are usually dedicated to St. Methodius, however, is also alone. In terms of its content, this canon seems less independent than the previous one. From the troparions relating to St. Cyril, you can note the following: “Another Abram appeared in exile, Father Cyril, in the land of Canaon, and enlightened him with the words of the new teaching, singing: Blessed art thou our father, God” (Song 7). This comparison of St. Kirill and Abraham. It has already been found in the previous canon, but in a different sense. There, Cyril’s resettlement from his native city to Constantinople for his own education was taken into account: here resettlement to a foreign country, which he was supposed to enlighten with the word of a new, i.e., gospel teaching. And this country, of course, in relation to the history of Abraham is called Canaanite. Is this where the legend about Kanaon or Kaon, found in the prologues, arose? Here are a few troparions in honor of St. Methodius: “Another zealous Elijah appeared on earth, Holy Mythody, burning down all kinds of heresies with God-inspired teachings” (p. 1.). “With your feet, sanctify the entire universe, God-voiced Father Methodius, distributing the word to all countries in a new language. Even more blessed, we glorify all creation, with your words we enlighten” (paragraph 4). “Having found a new Paul, the wise one, acquired the whole world of God, consciously accepted the cross of Christ, reached the west, holy, destroying all idolatry flattery, all heresies, blessed, consuming” (p. 4.). “Heresy is completely contrary to grace, Methodius, worthy of answers, the Father (from the Father) since the Paraclete proceeds, and not the Son of the verb, confessing the equality of the Trinity pure” (p. 6.). The last troparion can be conveyed in the following words: By the grace of God you gave a worthy answer against all heresies, and you called the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit) emanating from the Father, and not from the Son, teaching you to give equal honor to the Trinity.” This clearly indicates the attitude of St. Methodius to the dispute that arose then between the Eastern and Western Churches about the procession of the Holy Spirit and testifies to the Orthodoxy of the Slavic preacher and pastor. Let us conclude our extracts with the words of the canon, in which we can see an indication of the country where it was compiled.” The Moravian country led the way and had a pillar towards God, enlightened by you, teach us to sing in our language: Blessed are you, our father, God.” That is, the Moravian country, enlightened by you, and having in you a great intercessor and defender before God, learned to sing to Him in its language: blessed is the God of our fathers (item 7). “To you we offer a prayer, blessed one, accept from your unworthy lips; pray diligently to Christ for your flock” (paragraph 9.). From the above words we can conclude that the creator of the canon counts himself among the flock of St. Methodius, and that of the many Slavic countries, equally obliged to their enlighteners for the establishment of rational worship, the Moravian land was closest to the compiler of the canon. But so that these first experiments in church chants in the Slavic language do not seem like completely lonely phenomena in a country where Slavic worship was soon persecuted by the Latin clergy, we also point out the canon, preserved in the same menaions of the Synodal Library, in honor of St. Vyacheslav of the Czech Republic, and written without a doubt in the Czech lands. This canon is placed at 28 o'clock on September 8, when the memory of St. Vyacheslav. The creator of the canon makes himself visible quite clearly, repeatedly pointing to the triumph of the city of Prague. Let us quote his words: “Prague, glorious city, rejoice joyfully, honoring your memory and your miracles, illuminating the light of the whole country, calling to drink: blessed is God our fathers” (paragraph 7.). “Merry with kindnesses, more glorious than the sun in the land of Bohemets, sanctified from above by beneficent dawns, having surpassed Christ throughout the ages” (p. 8.). The meaning of this troparion, apparently, is damaged by the loss or change of some words: but what is noteworthy here is the reference to the land of Bohemia. This troparion is immediately followed by: “Your holy body, blessed one, accept Prague, this most praiseworthy city, and proclaim the wondrous wonders of the world, surpassing Christ for centuries.” From this living participation in the spiritual joy of the city of Prague and the entire Bohemian land, it is clearly revealed that the writer of the canon belonged to the Czech Church. Service of St. Cyril and Methodius, which was reported in O. M. Bodyansky’s work “On the Time of the Origin of Slavic Writings” p. 78, does not seem ancient in its language. According to the Synod catalogue. libraries The February menaion is listed under N 164, the April menaion - 165. In general, these Menaions have quite a few peculiarities in their composition. The stichera and troparia of the canons are set to notes for singing. When transmitting extracts from manuscripts in Russian alphabet, we cannot express the different styles of letters: e, u, i; We also do not express features in the outline o, y, s. For ease of reading, we separate the words and put punctuation marks as required by the meaning. The manuscript does not contain abbreviations in words. In service Jan 28 on Praise, 4 stichera So the words: changed and rejected must be in the accusative case. One could see in this tropar an indication of the debate with Zamri, which in the prologues of the 15th century is assimilated by St. Cyril, then his brother Methodius. See Dobrovsky, Cyril and Methodius) in trans. Pogodina, pp. 103 et seq. - But since nothing is said about this debate in the ancient lives of these saints, it is impossible to reliably dwell on such an assumption. One may ask whether it was not the canon that gave rise to the compilation of the legend about Zamri the heretic? Menaion N 160. October 26th.