After the Fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity, which had become entangled with the Empire, began to spread throughout the various barbarian tribes that populated Europe at the time. Missionary activity was vibrant for the next several hundred years, spreading the gospel message from region to region. The Church has been blessed by many great missionary saints from this time period. Some, like St. Patrick, St. Boniface, and St. Bede the Venerable, are fairly well-known in Catholic circles. While others tend to be overlooked.
Two saints, who are often overlooked despite their significant contributions to the proclamation of the faith, are the heroic brothers, Sts. Cyril and Methodius. In 1980, when St. Pope John Paul II named them, “Patrons of Europe,” he did so with good reason. These Greek brothers, who grew up in Thessalonica, both left their family’s prominent secular careers to become priests. St. Cyril, a brilliant scholar, originally served on the philosophy faculty at the university in Constantinople, but he obediently left that comfortable position when the emperor commissioned both he and Methodius to travel to Slovakia (Moravia at the time) as missionaries.
Both brothers knew the Slavonic language well since it was commonly spoken around their homeland. Thus, they were well equipped to preach to the people in their own native tongue. St. Cyril, however, used his intellectual gifts to serve the people he would be ministering to even more. Before heading out on their mission, he took the time to develop a script that could be used with the Slavonic language. He developed the Glagolithic alphabet in order to translate the Church’s liturgy and the Bible into language of people he had been sent to evangelize. The Glagolithic alphabet later developed into the Cyrillic alphabet, still bearing the name of St. Cyril to this day.
He and St. Methodius preached and taught faithfully throughout the Slavic region, bringing many people to Christ. They met opposition, not from the barbarian tribes, but from other missionaries in the area who objected to their use of the vernacular rather than Latin. Humble and obedient, the brothers traveled to Rome to seek the approval of the Pope. While in Rome, St. Cyril took final vows as a monk. Though the brothers were granted permission to continue to use the Slavonic language in their mission, St. Cyril died before they could return to this work. St. Methodius was made Bishop of the Moravians (Slavs) and continued evangelizing the region.
St. Methodius continued in his missionary zeal even after being imprisoned for three years on his return the region. After Pope John VIII secured his release from captivity, St. Methodius faithfully returned to preaching the gospel, and by the time of his death the entire region had converted to Christianity.
Sts. Cyril and Methodius gave an extraordinary witness to the Faith at a time when doing so could easily lead to death at the hands of hostile barbarians. In addition to faithfully preaching the gospel, they took the time and effort to minister to the people in their native tongue, while at the same time submitting themselves obediently to the Church. Their efforts bore fruit in the conversion of an entire region.
Given all of this, why do they tend to be overlooked? Well, quite simply, the Church’s liturgy celebrates their joint feast day on February 14th, a date that is more commonly associated with a different saint. This year, when you are donning your red sweater, smelling your roses, and eating your chocolate, pause for a moment and remember these remarkable brothers, patrons of Europe, and ask them to inspire you to greater levels of missionary zeal.
Saints Cyril and Methodius, pray for us!
Prose for the sake of Poetry 