ST CYRIL AND ST METHODIUS

ST CYRIL AND ST METHODIUS
Feast: February 14

As a step in promoting reunion with the Orthodox churches, the Pope, in 1981, named Cyril and his brother Methodius Patrons of Europe because of the tremendous impact they both had on the Christianization of Moravia and the Balkan countries. Of Greek background, they were admirably suited for their role as missionaries, being skilled in languages as well as being loyal adherents of the Roman church. Cyril invented the Glagolitic script used in translating Scripture for the conversion of the Slavs. His followers developed Old Slavonic, using an alphabet which they named Cyrillic in his honor. This, not Latin, despite the close connection with Papal Rome, was to be the language used in the liturgy and was largely responsible for the success of the mission of the two brothers. Throughout their missionary endeavors, they encountered the hostility of German and other bishops over jurisdictional issues, not unlike the tension seen in Russia and other Eastern countries in the present, stemming from similar disputes between ecclesiastical territorial claimants.
 

 Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not involve the faith or the good of the whole community. Rather she respects and fosters the spiritual adornments and gifts of the various races and peoples

(Vatican II, Liturgy, 37)