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The saints

Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Two Greek brothers who invented an alphabet so the Slavs could hear the Gospel in their own tongue.

Feast: 14 February · 9th century · The Middle Ages · Thessalonica, Moravia and Rome

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Painting of Sts. Cyril and Methodius standing together, one holding an open book, beneath a cross.

Jan Matejko, 1885. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Great Moravia, 863

Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica, a scholar and a former governor.1

A Moravian prince asked for missionaries who could teach his people in their own language.1

Cyril created an alphabet for Slavic speech so the Scriptures and liturgy could be written down.

Patron of Slavic peoples1; ecumenism1; co-patrons of Europe2

01Sts. Cyril and Methodius

The Slavic liturgy

Some German clergy objected to worship in Slavic, and the brothers went to Rome, where the pope approved their work.1

Cyril died in Rome, and Methodius went back as a bishop and kept working through imprisonment and opposition.1

02Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Patrons of Europe

In 1980 Pope John Paul II named them co-patrons of Europe with St. Benedict.1

Live it this week

Learn someone’s language

Cyril learned the Slavs’ speech so they could hear about Christ. This week, learn to say hello, thank you and God bless you in the language of a neighbor or coworker, and use it.

Notes

How we know · 2 sources for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saints Cyril and Methodius”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Sts. Cyril and Methodius”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.