Saints Cyril and Methodius

Who is Saints Cyril and Methodius?

Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers from Thessalonica whose missionary work and linguistic scholarship became foundational to Bulgarian, and broader Slavic, culture. In the 860s the brothers were sent by the Byzantine Emperor to Great Moravia to spread Christianity in the Slavic vernacular rather than Latin or Greek, and to accomplish this Cyril devised the Glagolitic alphabet, the first script created specifically to render Slavic languages. Their disciples, expelled from Moravia after Methodius's death, found refuge in the First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Boris I, where the Preslav and Ohrid literary schools developed the Cyrillic alphabet, named in Cyril's honor, from the Glagolitic base and Greek uncial script. This new alphabet allowed Bulgaria to establish an independent Slavic liturgy and literature, and it subsequently spread to Serbia, Kievan Rus, and beyond, becoming the writing system still used today across much of the Slavic world including Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian. Cyril died in Rome in 869 and Methodius in Moravia in 885. Bulgaria commemorates them jointly every 24 May as the Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavic Literacy, one of the country's most cherished national holidays.

Sources: Vita Constantini and Vita Methodii (9th-century hagiographies) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Saints Cyril and Methodius" · UNESCO — "Day of Slavonic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture" heritage records