©Young Pleiades 2006—2007

24th May

24th May is a day to celebrate Saints Cyril and Methodius patrons of Bulgarian culture and education

 

Equal to the Apostles

 

Born and educated on the Balkans at the border between Europe and Asia Saints Cyril (born Constantine) and Methodius grew up at the crossroads of powerful religions: Christianity , Judaism and Islam.

Their first international mission to the Khazars wasn’t very successful.  They managed to baptize several hundred people but the Khazars while exploring Islam at the same time decided to adopt Judaism as a state religion.

In the end of 862 prince of Moravia Rostislav sent his people to the Byzantine emperor Michael III. The prince was worried that meaning of the true faith was not explained to  his people in an understandable language and wished for a teacher  who could instruct the Moravians in the Slavonic tongue. The saint brothers were picked by both the emperor and the patriarch and sent to Moravia.

Besides being able to preach in the Slavic language Cyril had invented the Glagolitza Slavic alphabet which he used to translate the scriptures into Slavic.

After serving in Moravia for 3 years they were summoned to Rome where they had to face the hostile Catholic priests who held that the Holy Scriptures can only be written in Greek, Latin and Hebrew as the sole acceptable church languages referring to Pilate’s writings made on the Christ’s cross as a proof for that concept.

After hearing Cyril’s arguments Pope Adrian agreed that the Bible can be translated in other languages. The brothers also brought to Rome the relics of St Clement the third bishop of Rome which they have recovered from the Khazars on their earlier mission.

Shortly afterward Cyril died and was buried in St Clement’s church in Rome.

Methodius returned to Moravia where he faced hostility by the German princes who saw in him threat to their influence among the Slavic people in the region: Moravians, Czechs, Poles and others. Feeling the approach of death St Methodius increased the intensity of his work in translating books of Holy Bible. He devised a new alphabet based on the Glagolitza but with simpler and similar to the Greek and Latin orthography which he called Cyrillic in memory of his brother. Methodius died in Velegrad in 885.

After Methodius’s death his disciples were persecuted and sent into exile from Moravia together with other 200 priests in 886.

In Bulgaria the disciples of St Methodius  Climent and Naum among them  were received with great joy in the country which had adopted Christianity the previous year.

Ir was especially important for Russia that the deeds of St Cyril and Methodius have given fruit down in neighboring Bulgaria, passing to Russia the Orthodox Slavic culture. The ability of preaching to new Christians and confessing faith in understandable language led to fast and faithful acceptance of Christ’s teaching by  the Russian people.

As champions of the right of the faithful to celebrate the sacred mysteries in their own language, Cyril and Methodius, in 1980, were proclaimed co-patrons of Europe by Pope John Paul II..

The saints' feast day is celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on May 24 and by the Roman Catholic Church on 14 February as Saints Cyril and Methodius Day.

It is a public holiday in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Macedonia, and Slovakia; it is celebrated in Russia as a holiday associated with the two brothers, who are considered patrons of learning and education.

 

Among the languages written in Cyrillic at present are:

Slavic languages: Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian

Non-Slavic languages: Ossetian, Tajik, Moldovan, Mongolian, Khalkha, Buryat, Kalmyk, Abkhaz, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Chuvash, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Uzbek

Glagolica

Cyrillic

Talents

 

A merchant going on a journey, called his servants and gave five talents to one, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put them to work and gained five more. The one with the two talents did the same gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master returned.  ‘Master,’ said the first one, ‘See, I have gained five more.’ 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' “The man with the two talents also came.' Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’ 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown. I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ ‘You wicked, lazy servant!’ replied his master. ‘So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not sown? Why did your rob me from the interest that was due to me. Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

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