The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): MarchBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
[Roman Martyrology. S. Cyril by the Greeks on Feb. 14th, and S.
Methodius on May 11th. Authorities:--The Life of S. Clement, a pupil
of Methodius, pub. by Pampereus, Vienna, 1802; the Pannonian Life
of Methodius; notices in the Life of S. Ludmilla; the Chronicle of
Nestor; Cosmas of Prague, &c. The chronology in this article is from
the treatise on Cyril and Methodius by Philaret, B. of Rigá, Milan,
1847.]
Cyril and Methodius, the apostles of the Sclaves, were brothers, the
sons of a man of rank in Thessalonica. Constantine, who afterwards in
religion assumed the name of Cyril, the younger, was educated at the
court of Constantinople, along with the youthful emperor Michael, from
the year 842, by the illustrious Photius, who instructed him in logic,
philosophy, mathematics, and languages. His talents and accomplishments
afforded him every prospect of a brilliant career in the world, but
he chose to lay them at the foot of the cross, and, receiving sacred
orders, was appointed librarian to the palace. Soon after, he retired
to a little monastery, but was drawn from it again to give lectures on
philosophy.
Methodius, his elder brother, as soon as his education was
accomplished, entered the army, and was appointed to the government of
the Græco-Sclavonic province, which, according to the Pannonian legend,
he held for ten years.
In the year 851, Cyril retired to Mount Olympus, along with his
brother, who had also resolved to desert the world, and lived in
seclusion and the practice of self-discipline. In 858, some dignitaries
of the Chazars, a Hunnish race, besought the emperor to send them a
learned man to instruct them in the true faith, and Cyril and Methodius
were chosen for this purpose.
How long they spent on this mission is not known exactly. They
tarried till they could organise the church among the Chazars, and
then retired to the Crimea where they worked together at making a
Sclavonic translation of the Holy Gospels. It was whilst there that
they discovered what they believed to be the relics of S. Clement of
Rome, lying together with the anchor, which had been attached to his
neck, where the faithful had reverently laid him. They raised the holy
remains, and translated them to Constantinople.
In 862, the Sclavonic princes of Pannonia, Rostislaw, Swaetopolk, and
Kotel requested the emperor Michael and the patriarch Photius, to send
them teachers, "because they were without true instructors for the
people," and they desired to have instruction and divine worship in
their own language. It appears that missionaries of the Latin Church
had already penetrated amongst them, but probably had been unable to
master the Sclavonic tongue; at any rate, the Pannonians refused to
accept them, and turned instead to the East.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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