Ss. Cyril & Methodius (9th c.)

Two brothers from Thessalonica who grew up speaking the Slavonic of the villages around the city. Constantine, a scholar, and Methodius, a former governor turned monk, were sent in 863 by the Emperor and the Patriarch Photius to Great Moravia at its prince’s request for teachers who could preach in the people’s own tongue. Constantine made an alphabet, the Glagolitic, and they translated the Gospels and the services. German clergy objected that God could be worshipped only in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and the brothers took the argument to Rome and won it. Constantine died there in 869, having taken the name Cyril as a monk; Methodius, imprisoned for years by Bavarian bishops, finished the work. Their disciples, driven out, carried it to Bulgaria, where the Cyrillic alphabet was made in his memory. Feast: May 11.