Saints Cyril and Methodius

Methodius, born around 815, and his younger brother Constantine, born around 827, grew up in Thessalonica in a Greek family that also knew the Slavic language spoken nearby. Constantine became a brilliant scholar in Constantinople and Methodius a monk. In 863 the emperor sent them to Great Moravia at the request of its prince, who wanted missionaries able to teach his people in their own language.

The brothers created the Glagolitic alphabet and translated the Gospels and the liturgy into Slavonic. Opposed by some German clergy, they went to Rome, where Pope Adrian II approved their Slavonic liturgy. Constantine became a monk there, taking the name Cyril, and died in Rome on February 14, 869. Methodius was ordained archbishop and returned to the Slavs, enduring imprisonment and opposition, until his death in 885. Saint John Paul II named them co-patrons of Europe in 1980.

They are beloved throughout Eastern Europe: in the Czech Republic and Slovakia July 5 is a national holiday in their honor, and in Bulgaria May 24 celebrates them as the givers of Slavic writing and culture.

Many Slavic Catholic and Orthodox families in the United States keep their feast with liturgies in Church Slavonic and traditional foods.