St Cyril, Teacher of the Slavs

Constantine of Thessalonica, called 'the Philosopher' for his brilliance in the schools of Constantinople, was sent with his brother Methodius in 863 to Great Moravia at the request of Prince Rastislav, who wanted teachers for his people in their own tongue. For the mission Constantine devised the first Slavic alphabet — the Glagolitic script — and with his brother began translating the Gospels and the services into Slavonic. When Frankish clergy insisted that worship was lawful only in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, he defended the vernacular before scholars in Venice and before the Pope in Rome, asking whether God sends rain on all peoples alike. Rome approved the Slavonic books. Falling ill in Rome, he received the monastic schema with the name Cyril and died on 14 February 869, begging Methodius to continue their work. The Cyrillic alphabet, developed by their disciples, bears his name; half the Slavic world still reads by his light.