Both brothers were born in Thessalonica and knew the Slavic language, which at that time was spoken in Macedonia.
The younger brother’s real name was Constantine. Only at the end of his life, when he professed as a monk, did he take the name Cyril. He studied in Constantinople, was ordained a priest, and became a professor of philosophy.
Michael, the elder brother, served as governor of a Byzantine province inhabited by Slavs. He later renounced this office to become a monk in Bithynia, where he took the name Methodius and became an igumen (superior). The emperor first sent the two brothers as missionaries to the Khazars. Later, when Prince Rastislav of Moravia asked Emperor Michael III for priests who could preach in the Slavic language, Methodius and Cyril were chosen for the mission.
Their greatest achievement was their ability to adapt perfectly to the people they evangelized. They created the Slavic alphabet and translated the Scriptures and the liturgy into that language. These innovations provoked tensions with the Latin missionaries who were already present in the region. After a period in Pannonia, the brothers went to Rome to defend themselves against accusations. There, Pope Adrian II approved their missionary methods and even invited them to celebrate the sacred mysteries in Slavic in the Eternal City.
Constantine (Cyril) died in Rome on February 14, 869, and was buried in the church of Saint Clement, whose relics he and Methodius had personally brought from Cherson. Adrian II ordained Methodius a priest and later made him archbishop of Pannonia, with his see at Sirmium, as well as papal legate to the Slavs.
The political struggles of Moravia and the rivalry of the archbishop of Salzburg brought fresh difficulties, so serious that Methodius was even imprisoned by a synod. Pope John VIII defended him, but for a time forbade the use of the Slavic language in worship and reduced his jurisdiction. Methodius died on April 6, 885, and was buried with rites in Slavic, Greek, and Latin.
Their feast was inscribed in the Roman calendar in 1880, on July 5; later moved to July 7; and today is celebrated on the anniversary of Cyril’s death. On December 31, 1980, Pope John Paul II, himself of Slavic origin, proclaimed Cyril and Methodius co-patrons of Europe, a title previously given by Pope Paul VI to Saint Benedict.
