37. Благовестнические труды святых равноапостольных Кирилла и Мефодия

When the Western Church began to fall away from the Orthodox Ecumenical Church, a special desire to accept the Christian faith was noticed on the part of the Slavs, who were looking for light for themselves in the East. The Lord, apparently, called them to complete His Church and raised up for them great preachers of the faith in the person of the Equal-to-the-Apostles brothers Cyril and Methodius. Cyril (in the world Constantine) and Methodius were born in Macedonia in the city of Thessaloniki. Upon completion of his education, Methodius entered military service and was the ruler of one Slavic region, but soon left the world and accepted monasticism in a monastery on Mount Olympus. From childhood, Constantine showed amazing abilities and received an excellent education at the royal court together with the young Emperor Michael III, where he benefited from the lessons of the famous Photius, later patriarch. After completing his education, Constantine could have had brilliant success in the world, but his heart burned with love for God, and the blessings of the world did not seduce him. For some time he taught his favorite science, philosophy, at the main school of Constantinople, but soon left Constantinople and settled in a monastery with his brother Methodius. Here they labored together in fasting and prayer, until the Providence of God called them to preach to the Slavic tribes 63 . The first of the Slavic peoples to turn to Christianity were the Bulgarians. The sister of the Bulgarian prince Bogoris (Boris) was taken hostage to Constantinople. She was baptized with the name Theodora and was raised in the spirit of the holy faith. Around 860, she returned to Bulgaria and began to encourage her brother to accept Christianity. Boris was baptized and took the name Mikhail. Saints Cyril and Methodius were in this country and with their preaching they greatly contributed to the establishment of Christianity in it. From Bulgaria, the Christian faith spread to neighboring Serbia. After Bulgaria and Serbia were enlightened, ambassadors from the Moravian prince Rostislav came to Constantinople with the following request: “Our people profess the Christian faith, but we do not have teachers who could explain the faith to us in our native language; send us such teachers.” The emperor and patriarch rejoiced and, calling the holy Thessalonica brothers, invited them to go to the Moravians. For greater success in preaching, Saint Cyril considered it necessary to translate sacred and liturgical books into Slavic, for preaching only orally, according to Saint Cyril, is like writing in sand. But before translation, it was necessary to invent Slavic letters and compose the Slavic alphabet. Saint Cyril, following the example of the apostles, prepared for these great labors with prayer and forty days of fasting. As soon as the alphabet was ready, Saint Cyril translated selected passages from the Gospel and the Apostle into Slavic. Some chroniclers report that the first words written in the Slavic language were those of the Holy Evangelist John: “From the beginning (i.e., in the beginning) was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word.” In 863, the holy brothers went to Moravia with their disciples Gorazd, Clement, Savva, Naum and others. The performance of divine services and the reading of the Gospel in the Slavic language soon attracted the hearts of the Moravians to them and gave them an advantage over the German preachers. The German and Latin preachers were jealous of these successes and opposed the holy brothers in every possible way. They spread the opinion among the people that the word of God can only be read in the three languages ​​in which the inscription on the cross of the Lord was made, namely, Hebrew, Greek and Latin; they called Cyril and Methodius heretics because the holy brothers preached in the Slavic language; Finally, they brought a complaint against them to Pope Nicholas. The Pope wished to see the Slavic evangelists. Respecting the pope as one of the patriarchs and hoping to find help from him for their holy cause, the holy brothers went to Rome. They carried with them part of the relics of St. Clement, Pope of Rome, and the sacred books they translated. Pope Nicholas, without waiting for them, died. His successor, Pope Adrian, who wanted the pacification of the Church, received the holy preachers with great honor. He went out to meet them outside the city, accompanied by the clergy and a multitude of people, received the holy relics from them and reverently placed them in the Church of St. Clement, and consecrated the books, translated into Slavic, on the throne of the most ancient Roman basilica, the so-called St. Mary Major. Soon after arriving in Rome, Kirill fell dangerously ill; he bequeathed the continuation of the great work to his brother and died peacefully on February 14, 869. Saint Methodius fulfilled his brother’s will: returning to Moravia already in the rank of archbishop, he worked here for fifteen years. From Moravia, Christianity penetrated into Bohemia during the lifetime of Saint Methodius. The Bohemian prince Borivoj received holy baptism from him. His example was followed by his wife Lyudmila and many others. In the middle of the 10th century, the Polish prince Mieczyslaw married the Bohemian princess Dąbrowka, was baptized himself, and his subjects were baptized after him. Subsequently, the Slavic peoples, through the efforts of Latin preachers, with the help of German emperors, with the exception of the Serbs and Bulgarians, were torn away from the Greek Church under the rule of the Pope. But in them, despite the centuries that have passed, the memory of the great Equal-to-the-Apostles enlighteners and the Orthodox faith that they tried to plant among them is still alive. This sacred memory serves as a link connecting them, a consolation among disasters and oppressions and a guarantee of the glory that the future apparently prepares for this great and generously gifted tribe. – For us Russians, it is worthy of note that before this recognition, the Lord brought great brothers to be within the borders of our country. In 858, the Khazars, a Caucasian tribe that roamed the southeast of what is now Russia, asked Emperor Michael for preachers of the faith. On behalf of Patriarch Photius, the holy brothers arrived in Kherson. Here they lived for about two years, studied the Khozarian language and discovered the relics of the holy martyr Clement of Rome. You might be interested in: