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SS Cyril & Methodius
February 14
SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints 6
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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.
6
Butler’s Lives of the Saints, edited by M. Walsh, New York: HarperCollins, 1991, pp. 46-47.