Vigils Reading – SS Cyril & Methodius

SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS

From Butler’s Lives of the Saints

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In 862 there arrived in Constantinople an ambassador charged by

Rostislav, prince of Moravia, to ask if the emperor would send him missionaries

capable of teaching his people in their own language. Photius, now patriarch of

Constantinople, decided that Cyril and Methodius were most suitable for the

work; they were learned men, who knew Slavonic.

In 863 the two brothers set out with a number of assistants and came to

the court of Rostislav. The new missionaries made free use of the vernacular in

their preaching and ministrations, and this made immediate appeal to the local

people. To the German clergy this was objectionable, and their opposition was

strengthened when the Emperor Louis forced Rostislav to take an oath of fealty

to him. The Byzantine missionaries, armed with their pericopes from the

Scriptures and liturgical hymns in Slavonic, pursued their way with much

success, but were soon handicapped by their lack of a bishop to ordain more

priests. The German prelate, the bishop of Passau, would not do it, and Cyril

therefore determined to seek help elsewhere, presumably from Constantinople

whence he came.

On their way the brothers arrived in Venice. It was at a bad moment.

Photius at Constantinople had incurred excommunication; the proteges of the

Eastern emperor and their liturgical use of a new tongue were vehemently

criticized. They came to Rome bringing with them alleged relics of Pope St

Clement, which St Cyril had recovered when in the Crimea on his way back from

the Khazars. Adrian II warmly welcomed the bearers of so great a gift. He

examined their cause, and he gave judgment: Cyril and Methodius were to

received episcopal consecration, their neophytes were to be ordained, and the

use of the liturgy in Slavonic was approved.

While still in Rome Cyril died, on February 14, 869. He was buried with

great pomp in the church of San Clemente on the Coelian, where the relics of St

Clement had been enshrined. St Methodius now took up his brother’s

leadership. Having been consecrated bishop he returned, bearing a letter from

the Holy See recommending him as a man of “exact understanding and

orthodoxy”. Kosel, prince of Pannonia, asked that the ancient archdiocese of

Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa) be revived. Methodius was made metropolitan and

the boundaries of his charge extended to the borders of Bulgaria.