Saint of the day for February 14: story of Saints Cyril and Methodius

Since their father was an officer in a part of Greece inhabited by many Slavs, these two Greek brothers eventually became missionaries, teachers and patrons of the Slavic peoples. After a brilliant course of study, Cyril (called Constantine until he became a monk shortly before his death) refused the governorship of a district as his brother had accepted among the Slavic-speaking population. Cyril retired to a monastery where his brother Methodius had become a monk after a few years in a government post. A decisive change in their life occurred when the Duke of Moravia asked the Emperor Michael of the East for political independence from German rule and ecclesiastical autonomy (having his own clergy and liturgy). Cyril and Methodius undertook the missionary task. Cyril's first work was to invent an alphabet, still used in some oriental liturgies. His followers probably formed the Cyrillic alphabet. Together they translated the Gospels, the psalter, Paul's letters and the liturgical books into Slavic, and composed a Slavic liturgy, which was then very irregular. This and their free use of the vernacular in preaching led to opposition from the German clergy. The bishop refused to consecrate Slavic bishops and priests and Cyril was forced to appeal to Rome. During their visit to Rome, he and Methodius had the joy of seeing their new liturgy approved by Pope Adrian II. Cyril, disabled for some time, died in Rome 50 days after taking the monastic habit. Methodius continued mission work for another 16 years. He was papal legate for all Slavic peoples, consecrated bishop and then was assigned an ancient see (now in the Czech Republic). When much of their former territory was removed from their jurisdiction, the Bavarian bishops retaliated with a violent storm of accusations against Methodius. As a result, Emperor Louis the German exiled Methodius for three years. Pope John VIII obtained his release.

As the still angered Frankish clergy continued his accusations, Methodius had to travel to Rome to defend himself against accusations of heresy and support his use of the Slavic liturgy. He was again claimed. Legend has it that in a feverish period of activity, Methodius translated the entire Bible into Slavic in eight months. He died on Tuesday of Holy Week, surrounded by his disciples, in his cathedral church. The opposition continued after his death and the work of the brothers in Moravia ended and their disciples were scattered. But the expulsions had the beneficial effect of spreading the spiritual, liturgical and cultural work of the friars in Bulgaria, Bohemia and southern Poland. The patrons of Moravia, and particularly venerated by Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian Orthodox and Bulgarian Catholics, Cyril and Methodius are eminently suited to safeguard the much desired unity between East and West. In 1980, Pope John Paul II appointed them as additional co-patrons of Europe (with Benedict). Reflection: holiness means reacting to human life with the love of God: human life as it is, crossed with the political and the cultural, the beautiful and the ugly, the selfish and the saint. For Cyril and Methodius much of their daily cross had to do with the language of the liturgy. They are not holy because they converted the liturgy into Slavic, but because they did so with the courage and humility of Christ.