Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop – Readings
Commentary on Acts 13:46-49; Luke 10:1-9
The Gospel reading tells of Jesus sending out 72 disciples to prepare the way for his coming to various towns and villages he was going to visit. The harvest, he tells them, is abundant, but the labourers are few. That was true then, it was true in the time of Cyril and Methodius and it is true today. He further warns them that he is sending them out like lambs among wolves. Again, that was true then, was true in the time of Cyril and Methodius and is still true in our own time.
It is significant that the greatest opposition the brothers met was not from pagans or heretics, but from fellow Christians who had a restricted understanding of how the faith was to be communicated. The main source of opposition they met was on the basis of language. The opponents of Cyril and Methodius belived that only Latin could be the language of the Bible and of the liturgy. We can meet with similar kinds of prejudice in our own day when serious divisions can arise from identifying the essence of our Christian faith with what are really unessentials. Should our Mass be in the vernacular or in Latin? Should communion be received on the tongue or in the hand? Should we receive it standing or kneeling at altar rails? What kind of vestments should the priest wear? Is it of the essence of our faith that only males can preside at the Eucharist, or that they have to be celibate? There are so many of these sorts of questions.
Jesus further instructs his disciples to bring a message of peace wherever they go—but not peace at any price. It is not a true peace to compromise or stay silent on essentials of our faith. They are to move around with only the bare essentials for their needs, and to adapt themselves to the lifestyle of those with whom they stay. Again, Cyril and Methodius lived like this. Their life had begun with the austerity of monks, and Cyril would end his life back in a monastery.
The First Reading, too, reflects the situation of the two missionaries. It is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, and we find Paul and Barnabas in the town of Antioch, in the province of Pisidia, situated in what is southern Turkey today. It is a Sabbath day and practically the whole town has come out to listen to the two apostles.
But some of the Jews became jealous of their popularity and began verbally abusing Paul. As more and more Gentiles accepted the teaching of Paul, these same Jews incited the local women against him and had Paul and Barnabas expelled from the town.
This reflects the experience of Cyril and Methodius, who were constantly attacked by leaders of the German church who objected very strongly to the two brothers using the Slavonic language in their preaching and liturgy (and, as a result, were far more successful in their evangelising than the German missionaries had been). Like Paul, Methodius faced eviction and even imprisonment at the hands of fellow Christians.
The later history of the Church has had many similar experiences, with Christians becoming seriously divided from each other and using violence. It has resulted in tragic and long-lasting divisions. Jesus told his disciples that one of the ways by which his followers would be recognised would be their being united together in love. Let us pray today for greater unity both between our various denominations and within denominations so that the prayer of Jesus may be fulfilled:
…that they may all be one. (John 17:21)
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Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers from a noble family in Thessalonika, a district in north-eastern Greece. Methodius was born about 815 AD, and Cyril (known through most of his life as Constantine) the younger, was born about 827 AD. Though belonging to a senatorial family, they set aside all secular honours and became priests. They were living as monks in a monastery on the Bosphorous, when the Khazars sent a request to Constantinople asking for a Christian teacher. (At the height of their empire, the Khazars controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan and large portions of the Caucasus.)
Constantine was chosen, but his brother went with him. They learned the Khazar language and made many converts. Soon afterwards, there was also a request from the Moravians for a preacher of the Gospel (Moravia is today in the east of the Czech Republic). German missionaries had been working there, but because they did not know the local language, met with little success. The Moravians wanted someone who could teach them, and conduct their liturgy in the Slavonic language.
Because of their knowledge of the language, Constantine and Methodius were chosen. They went to Moravia in 863 AD and worked there for four and a half years. However, to do their work more effectively, Constantine devised an alphabet, based on the Greek alphabet, but with extra letters to accommodate sounds in the Slavonic language. With the help of his brother, he then translated the Gospels and the needed liturgical books into the Slavonic language which now could also be read using the new alphabet (the alphabet is called ‘Cyrillic’ after its creator).
In spite of their success, they were not trusted by the German church. This happened, first, because they had come from Constantinople where the church was very divided by schism and, second, because they celebrated the liturgy in the Slavonic language rather than Latin. Because of this, they were called to Rome by Pope Nicholas I, who, however, died before their arrival. They were received kindly by his successor, Pope Adrian II. Having been convinced of their doctrinal orthodoxy, the pope approved of their missionary work, sanctioned the use of Slavonic in the liturgy and ordained Methodius and Constantine bishops. They had arrived in Rome in 868 AD where Constantine entered a monastery, taking the name Cyril, by which he is now remembered. However, he died only a few weeks later on 4 February, 869 and is buried in the Church of San Clemente (now taken care of by Irish Dominicans).
At the request of the Moravian princes and a Slav prince, the people established the Archdiocese of Moravia and Pannonia, and made it independent of the German church. Methodius was its first archbishop. But two years later in 870 AD, Methodius was called to a synod in Ratisbon. There, he was deposed and put in prison.
Three years later he was released on the orders of Pope John VIII and reinstated. However, he was again called to Rome on the allegations of a German priest, Wiching, who questioned his orthodoxy and his use of the Slavonic language instead of Latin. After an enquiry, the use of Slavonic was approved with the proviso that the Gospel had first to be read in Latin before being read in Slavonic. Wiching then became a suffragan bishop under Methodius, but continued to oppose him. One of the last things Methodius did was to go to Constantinople where, with the help of some priests, he completed the translation of the Bible, with the exception of the Books of Maccabees. Worn out by his labours and struggles, Methodius died on 6 April, 885.
Formerly the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius was celebrated in Bohemia and Moravia on 9 March, but Pope Pius IX changed the date to 5 July. Pope Leo XIII, by his Encyclical Grande Munus of 30 September, 1880, extended the feast to the universal Church. On 1 October, 1999, Saints Cyril and Methodius were named Patrons of Europe by Pope John Paul II together with Saints Benedict, Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).
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