Cyril and Methodius became famous throughout the world as champions of the Christian faith and authors of the Slavic alphabet. The biography of the couple is extensive, even a separate biography is dedicated to Cyril, created immediately after the death of a man. However, today you can get acquainted with a brief history of the fate of these preachers and the founders of the alphabet in various manuals for children. The brothers have their own icon, where they are depicted together. They turn to her with prayers for good studies, luck for students, and an increase in intelligence.

Childhood and youth

Cyril and Methodius were born in Greek city Thessalonica (present-day Thessaloniki) in the family of a military leader named Leo, whom the authors of the biography of a couple of saints characterize as "good family and rich." Future monks grew up in the company of five more brothers.

Before the tonsure, the men bore the names Michael and Konstantin, and the first was older - he was born in 815, and Konstantin in 827. Controversy has not yet subsided over the ethnicity of the family in the circles of historians. Some attribute it to the Slavs, because these people were fluent in the Slavic language. Others attribute Bulgarian and, of course, Greek roots.

The boys received an excellent education, and when they matured, their paths diverged. Methodius leaned on military service under the patronage of a faithful friend of the family, he even rose to the rank of governor of a Byzantine province. In the "Slavic reign" he established himself as a wise and fair ruler.

Cyril from early childhood was fond of reading books, struck the environment with an excellent memory and abilities for science, was known as a polyglot - in addition to Greek and Slavic, Hebrew and Aramaic were listed in the language arsenal. At the age of 20, a young man, a graduate of the University of Magnavra, was already teaching the basics of philosophy at the court school at Tsargrad.

Christian ministry

Cyril flatly refused a secular career, although such an opportunity was provided. Marrying the goddaughter of an official of the royal office in Byzantium opened up dizzying prospects - the leadership of the region in Macedonia, and then the position of commander in chief of the army. However, the young theologian (Konstantin was only 15 years old) preferred to step onto the church path.

When he was already teaching at the university, the man even managed to win in theological disputes over the leader of the iconoclasts, the former patriarch John Grammatik, also known as Ammius. However, this story is considered just a beautiful legend.

The main task for the government of Byzantium at that time was considered to be the strengthening and promotion of Orthodoxy. Together with the diplomats, who traveled around the cities and villages, where they negotiated with religious enemies, missionaries traveled. Konstantin became them at the age of 24, setting off with the first important task from the state - to instruct Muslims on the true path.

At the end of the 50s of the 9th century, the brothers, tired of worldly bustle, retired to the monastery, where the 37-year-old Methodius was tonsured. However, Cyril was not allowed to rest for a long time: already in 860, the man was called to the throne of the emperor and instructed to join the ranks of the Khazar mission.

The fact is that the Khazar Khagan announced an inter-religious dispute, where Christians were asked to prove the truth of their faith to Jews and Muslims. The Khazars were already ready to go over to the side of Orthodoxy, but they set a condition - only if the Byzantine polemicists won in disputes.

Cyril took his brother with him and brilliantly completed the task assigned to his shoulders, but still the mission was not completely successful. The Khazar state did not become Christian, although the kagan allowed people to be baptized. On this trip, something serious happened for believers. historical event. On the way, the Byzantines looked into the Crimea, where, in the vicinity of Chersonesus, Cyril found the relics of Clement, the fourth holy pope of Rome, which were then transferred to Rome.

The brothers are involved in another important mission. Once, the ruler of the Moravian lands (Slavic state) Rostislav asked for help from Constantinople - teachers-theologians were required to tell the people about the true faith in an accessible language. Thus, the prince was going to get away from the influence of the German bishops. This trip became a landmark - the Slavic alphabet appeared.

In Moravia, the brothers worked tirelessly: they translated Greek books, taught the Slavs the basics of reading and writing, and at the same time taught them how to conduct divine services. The trip took three years. The results of the labors played a big role in the preparation for the baptism of Bulgaria.

In 867, the brothers had to go to Rome to answer for "blasphemy". The Western Church called Cyril and Methodius heretics, accusing them of reading sermons, including in Slavonic, while talking about the Almighty can only be done in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

On the way to the Italian capital, they stopped in the Principality of Blaten, where they taught the people book business. Those who arrived in Rome with the relics of Clement were so delighted that the new Pope Adrian II allowed worship services to be held in Slavonic and even allowed the translated books to be laid out in churches. During this meeting, Methodius received the episcopal rank.

Unlike his brother, Cyril took the veil as a monk only on the verge of death - it was necessary. After the death of the preacher, Methodius, overgrown with disciples, returned to Moravia, where he had to fight the German clergy. The deceased Rostislav was replaced by his nephew Svyatopolk, who supported the policy of the Germans, who did not allow the Byzantine priest to work in peace. Any attempt to distribute Slavic as a church.

Cyril and Methodius

Methodius was even imprisoned at the monastery for three years. Pope John VIII helped to get free, who imposed a ban on the liturgy as long as Methodius was in prison. However, in order not to escalate the situation, John also banned worship in the Slavic language. Only sermons were not punishable by law.

But a native of Thessaloniki, at his own peril and risk, continued to secretly conduct services in Slavic. At the same time, the archbishop baptized the Czech prince, for which he was later brought to trial in Rome. However, luck favored Methodius - he not only escaped punishment, but also received a papal bull and the opportunity to again conduct worship in the Slavic language. Shortly before his death, he managed to translate the Old Testament.

Creation of the alphabet

The brothers from Thessaloniki went down in history as the creators of the Slavic alphabet. The time of the event is 862 or 863. The Life of Cyril and Methodius claims that the idea was born as early as 856, when the brothers, together with their students Angelarius, Naum and Clement, settled on Mount Olympus Minor in the Polychron Monastery. Here Methodius served as rector.

The authorship of the alphabet is attributed to Cyril, but which one remains a mystery. Scientists tend to Glagolitic, this is indicated by 38 characters that it contains. As for the Cyrillic alphabet, it was brought to life by Clement of Ohrid. However, even if this is so, the student still used the achievements of Cyril - it was he who singled out the sounds of the language, which is the most important thing when creating writing.

The basis for the alphabet was the Greek cryptography, the letters are very similar, so the Glagolitic alphabet was confused with the Eastern alphabets. But for the designations of specific Slavic sounds, they took Hebrew letters, for example, “sh”.

Death

Constantine-Cyril, on a trip to Rome, was stricken by a serious illness, and on February 14, 869, he died - this day in Catholicism is recognized as the day of remembrance of the saints. The body was interred in the Roman temple of St. Clement. Cyril did not want his brother to return to the monastery in Moravia, and before his death he supposedly said:

“Here, brother, we were like two oxen in a harness, we plowed one furrow, and I fall into the forest, having finished my day. And although you love the mountain very much, you cannot leave your teaching for the sake of the mountain, for how else can you better achieve salvation?

Methodius outlived his wise relative by 16 years. Anticipating death, he ordered to carry himself to the church for a sermon. The priest died on Palm Sunday, April 4, 885. Methodius was buried in three languages ​​- Greek, Latin and, of course, Slavonic.

At the post of Methodius, the disciple Gorazd replaced him, and then all the undertakings of the holy brothers began to collapse. In Moravia, liturgical translations were gradually banned again, followers and students were hunted down - they were persecuted, sold into slavery and even killed. Some of the adherents fled to neighboring countries. Nevertheless, Slavic culture survived, the center of book learning moved to Bulgaria, and from there to Russia.

The holy chief-apostle teachers are revered in the West and East. In Russia, in memory of the feat of the brothers, a holiday was established - May 24 is celebrated as the Day Slavic writing and culture.

Memory

Settlements

• 1869 - the foundation of the village of Mefodievka near Novorossiysk

monuments

• Monument to Cyril and Methodius at the Stone Bridge in Skopje, Macedonia.
• Monument to Cyril and Methodius in Belgrade, Serbia.
• Monument to Cyril and Methodius in Khanty-Mansiysk.
• Monument in honor of Cyril and Methodius in Thessaloniki, Greece. The statue in the form of a gift was given to Greece by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
• Statue in honor of Cyril and Methodius in front of the building of the National Library of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria.
• Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saints Cyril and Methodius in Velehrad, Czech Republic.
• Monument in honor of Cyril and Methodius, installed in front of the building of the National Palace of Culture in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria.
• Monument to Cyril and Methodius in Prague, Czech Republic.
• Monument to Cyril and Methodius in Ohrid, Macedonia.
• Cyril and Methodius are depicted on the monument "1000th Anniversary of Russia" in Veliky Novgorod.

Books

• 1835 - poem "Cyrillo-Mephodias", Jan Golla
• 1865 - "Cyril and Methodius Collection" (edited by Mikhail Pogodin)
• 1984 - "Khazar Dictionary", Milorad Pavich
• 1979 - Thessalonica Brothers, Slav Karaslavov

Films

• 1983 - "Konstantin the Philosopher"
• 1989 - Thessalonica Brothers
• 2013 - "Cyril and Methodius - Apostles of the Slavs"

(Thessaloniki, Slavic. "Thesalt"). Their father, named Leo, "of good family and rich," was a drungarii, that is, an officer, under the strategos (military and civil governor) of Thessalonica. Their grandfather (it is not clear on his father or mother) was a great nobleman in Constantinople, but then, apparently, he fell out of favor and ended his days in obscurity in Thessalonica. The family had seven sons, and Methodius (researchers do not know whether this name was baptismal or given at tonsure) is the eldest, and Konstantin (Cyril) is the youngest of them.

It is almost impossible to accurately determine the ethnicity of Cyril and Methodius in the multinational Byzantium, although disputes on this issue continue to this day. According to one of the widespread versions, the Equal-to-the-Apostles brothers were of Greek origin. In the 19th century, Slavic scientists (Mikhail Pogodin, Germengild Irechek) defended their Slavic origin, based on their excellent command of the Slavic language - a circumstance that today is considered insufficient evidence. The Bulgarian tradition calls the brothers Bulgarians (to which the Macedonian Slavs were included until the 20th century), relying in particular on the prologue “Life of Cyril” (in a later edition), where it is said that he “has come from a blessed city from Soloun Grad”; this idea is supported by many modern Bulgarian scientists.

Thessalonica (or Thessalonica), where the brothers were born, was a bilingual city. In addition to the Greek language, they sounded the Slavic Solunian dialect, which was spoken by the tribes surrounding Thessaloniki: Dragovites, Sagudats, Vayunits, Smolyans, and which, according to the research of modern linguists, formed the basis of the language of translations of Cyril and Methodius, and with them the entire Church Slavonic language. An analysis of the language of the translations of Cyril and Methodius shows that they spoke Slavonic as their native language. The latter does not yet prove their Slavic origin and probably did not distinguish them excessively from other inhabitants hometown, since the “Life of Methodius” ascribes to Emperor Michael III the following words addressed to the saints: “you are more than a villager, but the villagers do not talk purely Slovenian.”

Years of study and teaching

Both brothers received excellent education. Methodius, with the support of a friend and patron of the family, the great logothete (head of the state treasury) eunuch Theoktist, made a good military and administrative career, crowned with the post of strategist of Slavinia, a Byzantine province located on the territory of Macedonia. Then, however, he took the veil as a monk.

Cyril, unlike his brother, initially followed the spiritual and scientific path. According to the "Life", compiled in the circle of his direct students, from the very beginning of his teaching in Thessalonica, he impressed those around him with his abilities and memory. Once, in his youth, while hunting, he lost his beloved hawk, and this made such an impression on him that he gave up all the amusements and, drawing a cross on the wall of his room, delved into the study of the works of Gregory the Theologian, to whom he added special poetic praise. Under the patronage of the logothete Theoktist, he went to Constantinople, where, according to his life, he studied with the emperor (but the young Michael was much younger than Constantine, perhaps in reality he was supposed to help in teaching the child emperor). Among his teachers are the largest scientists of that time, the future patriarch Photius I and Leo Mathematician. There he (according to the author of the Life, as if in three months) studied "To Homer and geometry, and to Leo and Photius to dialectics, and to all the philosophical sciences in addition: and rhetoric, and arithmetic, and astronomy, and music, and all other Hellenic arts". Subsequently, he also mastered Aramaic and Hebrew. At the end of his studies, he refused to start a very promising secular career by concluding an advantageous marriage with the goddaughter of the logothete (together with whom the “archontia” was also promised to begin with, that is, the administration of one of the semi-autonomous Slavic regions of Macedonia, and in the future, the post of strategist), and therefore was sent along the path of church service (since Konstantin was only 15 years old at that time, he had to go through several more preliminary steps in the church hierarchy before becoming a priest) and entered the service as, in the words of his life, “book at the Patriarch's in St. Sophia". Under the "reader of the patriarch" (the patriarch was Photius, the teacher of Constantine) can be understood as hartofilax (head of the patriarch's office, literally - "keeper of the archive"), or maybe bibliophilax - the patriarchal librarian; B. Florea prefers the second option, since the young deacon had no administrative experience for such a responsible position as the patriarch's secretary. However, at some point, he unexpectedly abandoned his post and hid in the monastery. After 6 months, the patriarch's envoys found him and begged him to return to Constantinople, where he began to teach philosophy at the same Magnavra University, where he had recently studied himself (since then, the nickname Constantine the Philosopher has become stronger behind him). According to the Life of Constantine, he defeated in a dispute the famous leader of the iconoclasts, the former patriarch John the Grammarian (in the Life he appears under the contemptuous nickname "Annius"); however, modern scholars almost unanimously consider the episode to be fictitious.

Khazar mission

Finding the relics of St. Clement, Pope

Constantine-Cyril played a leading role in this event, which he later described himself in the “Sermon for the Uncovering of the Relics of Clement, Pope of Rome”, which has come down in a Slavonic translation. At the same time, the acquisition itself took place with the participation of high-ranking representatives of the Constantinople clergy and the local bishop. E. V. Ukhanova believes that both the acquisition of the relics and their subsequent transfer by Constantine-Cyril to Rome (see below) were not only acts of piety, but also political acts of the Constantinople court aimed at reconciling Constantinople with the Roman throne in two moments when it seemed possible: when Photius was elected patriarch (before his well-known break with Pope Nicholas I) and after the removal of Photius by the new emperor Basil the Macedonian.

Moravian mission

If you ask the Slavic literate, saying: “Who created the letters or translated the books for you?”, Then everyone knows and, answering, they say: “Saint Constantine the Philosopher, named Cyril - he created the letters for us and translated the books, and Methodius, his brother. Because those who saw them are still alive. And if you ask: “what time?”, then they know and say: “that during the time of Michael, the king of Greece, and Boris, the prince of Bulgaria, and Rostislav, the prince of Moravia, and Kotsel, the prince of Blaten, in the summer from the creation of the whole world" .

If you ask the Slovenian boukar, saying: “Who did you create the letters, or did you offer the books?” - Then you see and answer, they say: “Saint Kostantin the Philosopher, called Kiril, create the letters for us and offer his books, and brother Methodius The essence of the bo is still alive, and the essence has seen them. And if you ask: “at what time?” then they lead and say: “as in the time of Michael, Tsar of Grchsk, and Boris, Prince of Bulgaria, and Rastitsa, Prince of Moravia, and Kotsel, Prince of Blatnsk, in the summer from the creation of the whole world”

Thus, the creation of the Slavic alphabet can be attributed to the year 863 after the birth of Christ, according to the Alexandrian chronology, used at that time by the Bulgarian chroniclers.

Experts have not yet come to a consensus on which of the two Slavic alphabets - Glagolitic or Cyrillic - is Konstantin. Chernorizet Khrabr, however, mentions that Cyril's alphabet had 38 characters, which indicates a Glagolitic alphabet.

Roman trip

Before his death, fearing that Methodius would return to the monastery on Olympus, he said to his brother:

“Here, brother, we were like two oxen in harness, plowed one furrow, and I y the forest<, дойдя борозду,>I fall, my day is over. And although you love the mountain very much, you cannot leave your teaching for the sake of the mountain, for how else can you better achieve salvation?

Original text (old Slav.)

““Behold, brother, you are the wife of Byakhov, one rein is heavy, and I fall on the forest, having finished my days. And if you love the mountain Velmy, then do not break the mountain for the sake of leaving your teachings, more than you can be saved.”

The Pope ordained Methodius to the rank of Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia.

Return of Methodius to Pannonia

In 879, the German bishops organized a new trial against Methodius. However, Methodius brilliantly justified himself in Rome and even received a papal bull allowing worship in the Slavic language.

In 881, Methodius, at the invitation of Emperor Basil I the Macedonian, arrived in Constantinople. There he spent three years, after which, together with his students, he returned to Moravia (Velegrad). With the help of three students, he translated the Old Testament and patristic books into Slavonic.

In 885, Methodius fell seriously ill. Before his death, he appointed his disciple Gorazd as his successor. On April 4, on Palm Sunday, he asked to be carried to the temple, where he read a sermon. On the same day he died. The funeral of Methodius took place in three languages ​​- Slavic, Greek and Latin.

After death

After the death of Methodius, his opponents managed to achieve the prohibition of Slavic writing in Moravia. Many students were executed, some moved to Bulgaria (Gorazd Ohrid and Kliment Ohrid) and Croatia.

Pope Adrian II wrote to Prince Rostislav in Prague that if anyone begins to be contemptuous of books written in Slavonic, then let him be excommunicated and brought to trial by the Church, for such people are “wolves”. And Pope John VIII in 880 writes to Prince Svyatopolk, ordering that sermons be delivered in Slavonic.

Disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius

The aforementioned disciples are revered in the Balkans as holy sevens.

Heritage

Cyril and Methodius developed a special alphabet for writing texts in the Slavic language - Glagolitic. At present, the point of view of V. A. Istrin prevails among historians, but is not generally recognized, according to which the Cyrillic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet by the disciple of the holy brothers Clement Ohridsky (which is also mentioned in his Life). Using the created alphabet, the brothers translated from Greek the Holy Scriptures and a number of liturgical books.

At the same time, it should be noted that even if the Cyrillic letter styles were developed by Clement, he relied on the work on isolating the sounds of the Slavic language done by Cyril and Methodius, and this work is the main part of any work to create a new script. Modern scientists note the high level of this work, which gave designations for almost all scientifically identified Slavic sounds, which we owe, apparently, to the outstanding linguistic abilities of Konstantin-Cyril noted in the sources.

Sometimes it is asserted that there was a Slavic script before Cyril and Methodius, based on a passage from the life of Cyril, which refers to books written in "Russian letters":

"And found the Philosopher here<в Корсуни>The Gospel and the Psalter, written in Russian letters, and found a man speaking that speech. And he talked with him and understood the meaning of the language, correlating the differences between vowels and consonants with his own language. And offering up a prayer to God, he soon began to read and speak. And many were amazed at this, glorifying God.

Original text (old Slav.)

“Find that Gospel and the Psalter, Russian writings are written, and you will find a person who speaks with that conversation. And having conversed with him, we will accept the power of speech, applying our conversations differently, vowel and consonant letters. And holding a prayer to God, soon begin to clean and say. And I am giving him wonder, praising God.

However, it does not follow from the passage that the "Russian language" mentioned there is Slavic; on the contrary, the fact that Konstantin-Kirill's mastery of it is perceived as a miracle directly indicates that it was not a Slavic language. It should be remembered at the same time that in the time of Cyril and Methodius and much later, the Slavs easily understood each other and believed that they spoke a single Slavic language, which some modern linguists agree with, who believe that one can talk about the unity of the Proto-Slavic language until the XII century. . Most researchers believe that the fragment either refers to the Gospel in the Gothic language (an idea first expressed by Shafarik), or the manuscript contains an error and instead of "Russians" should be considered "Sursky", that is, "Syrian". In confirmation, they indicate that the author makes a special distinction between vowels and consonants: as you know, in Aramaic writing, vowels are indicated by superscripts. It is also indicative that in general the entire fragment is given in the context of the story about Constantine's study of the Hebrew language and Samaritan writing, which he took up in Korsun, preparing for a dispute in Khazaria. Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov) also points out that in the same life it is emphasized more than once that Constantine was the creator of Slavic letters and there were no Slavic letters before him - that is, the author of the life does not consider the described “Russian” letters to be Slavic.

veneration

They are revered as saints both in the East and in the West.

The widespread veneration of Cyril and Methodius begins in the middle of the 19th century, when the names of the Slavic first teachers become a symbol of the self-determination of the cultures of the Slavic peoples. For the first time, the celebration of the day of memory of Cyril and Methodius was held on May 11, 1858 in Plovdiv, and the Greeks did not participate in the celebrations. The celebration itself had the character of a symbolic act of confrontation with the Greek hierarchy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, under whose jurisdiction the Bulgarian Church was then.

The first practical steps towards the resumption of church veneration of the Slavic first teachers were taken by Bishop Anthony of Smolensk   (Amfiteatrov), who addressed the Chief Procurator of the Synod in the summer of 1861 with a report in which he drew attention to the fact that in the Menaia on May 11 there was no service to Cyril and Methodius, and in There is neither a troparion nor a kontakion for them in the calendar. That is, in the liturgical practice of countries that used liturgical books printed in Russia (in Serbia, Bulgaria and Russia), a special service was not performed for Slavic primary teachers. Such a service had to be compiled and put into liturgical use. The initiative was supported by Metropolitan Filaret  (Drozdov).

Two years after these celebrations, the Cyril and Methodius Collection was published, edited by M. P. Pogodin, which included the publication of a significant number of primary sources related to the activities of Cyril and Methodius, including ancient services to the Slavic primary teachers. Also, articles were posted here that emphasized the political aspect of the Cyril and Methodius celebrations.

The holiday in honor of Cyril and Methodius is a public holiday in Russia (since 1991), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Republic of Macedonia. In Russia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, the holiday is celebrated on May 24; in Russia and Bulgaria it bears the name, in Macedonia - the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the holiday is celebrated on July 5th.

In Bulgaria there is the Order of Cyril and Methodius. Also in Bulgaria, back in the communist period, a public holiday was established - the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture (coinciding with the day of the church commemoration of Cyril and Methodius), which is widely celebrated today.

In mid-July 1869, in the century-old forest across the Tsemes River, Czech settlers who arrived in Novorossiysk founded the village of Mefodievka, which received the name in honor of St. Methodius.

• 

  Image in art

  In literature

  • Karaslavov S.Kh. Thessalonica brothers (1978-1979) (the Russian-language edition was released under the title Cyril and Methodius (1987))

  To the cinema

  • "Cyril and Methodius - Apostles of the Slavs" (2013)

  see also

  • Day Slavic culture and writing (Day of Cyril and Methodius)

  Notes

  1. Duychev, Ivan. Bulgarian Middle Ages. - Sofia: Science and Art, 1972. - S. 96.
  2. LIFE KONSTANTIN-KIRILL
  3. “Grandfather is great and glorious, even sitting near the Caesar, and he rejected the glory given to him by will, he was exiled, and he came to another land, impoverished. And give birth to me ”- quotes the life of the words of Konstantin himself - see LIFE KONSTANTIN-KIRILL
  4. Takhiaos, Anthony Aemilius-N. Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius Enlighteners of the Slavs. Sergiev Posad, 2005. P. 11.
  5. Cyril and Methodius Equal to the Apostles Teachers Slovenian
  6. Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05, s.v. "Cyril and Methodius, Saints"; Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica Incorporated, Warren E. Preece - 1972, p.846
  7. // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
  8. Cyril and Methodius// New encyclopedic dictionary. Volume 21. 1914
  9. E. M. VERESHCHAGIN From the history of the emergence of the first literary language of the Slavs. Translation technique of Cyril and Methodius)
  10. Cyrillo-Methodius Encyclopedia., Sofia., BAN edition (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), 1985
  11. S. B. Bernshtein. Slavic languages. Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 1990. - S. 460-461

Cyril and Methodius are the Slavic first teachers, the great preachers of Christianity, canonized not only by the Orthodox, but also by the Catholic Church.

The life and work of Cyril (Konstantin) and Methodius is reproduced in sufficient detail on the basis of various documentary and chronicle sources.

Cyril (826-869) received this name when he was tonsured into the schema 50 days before his death in Rome, he lived all his life with the name Konstantin (Konstantin the Philosopher). Methodius (814-885) - the monastic name of the monk, the secular name is unknown, presumably his name was Michael.

Cyril and Methodius are brothers. They were born in the city of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki) in Macedonia (now the territory of Greece). Since childhood, they have mastered the Old Slavonic language - Old Bulgarian. From the words of Emperor Michael III "Thessalonica" - all speak pure Slavic.

Both brothers lived mostly spiritual lives, striving for the embodiment of their beliefs and ideas, attaching no importance to sensual pleasures, or wealth, or career, or fame. The brothers never had wives or children, wandered all their lives without creating a home or permanent shelter, and even died in a foreign land.

Both brothers went through life, actively changing it in accordance with their views and beliefs. But as traces of their deeds, only the fruitful changes they made to folk life Yes, vague stories of lives, traditions, and legends.

The brothers were born in the family of Leo-drungarius, a Byzantine commander of the middle rank from the city of Thessaloniki. The family had seven sons, with Methodius being the eldest, and Cyril being the youngest of them.

According to one version, they came from a pious Slavic family that lived in the Byzantine city of Thessalonica. From a large number of historical sources, mainly from the "Brief Life of Clement of Ohrid", it is known that Cyril and Methodius were Bulgarians. Since in the 9th century the First Bulgarian Kingdom was a multinational state, it is not completely possible to determine exactly whether they were Slavs or Proto-Bulgarians, or even had other roots. The Bulgarian kingdom consisted mainly of the ancient Bulgarians (Turks) and Slavs, who already formed a new ethnic group - the Slavic Bulgarians, who retained the old name of the ethnic group, but were already a Slavic-Turkic people. According to another version, Cyril and Methodius were of Greek origin. There is also an alternative theory of the ethnic origin of Cyril and Methodius, according to which they were not Slavs, but Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians). This theory also refers to the assumptions of historians that the brothers created the so-called. Glagolitic - an alphabet that looks more like Old Bulgarian than Slavic.

Little is known about the first years of Methodius' life. Probably, there was nothing outstanding in the life of Methodius until she interbred with the life of his younger brother. Methodius entered the military service early and was soon appointed governor of one of the Slavic-Bulgarian regions subject to Byzantium. Methodius spent about ten years in this position. Then he left the military-administrative service alien to him and retired to a monastery. In the 860s, having renounced the rank of archbishop, he became abbot of the Polychron monastery on the Asian coast of the Sea of ​​Marmara, near the city of Cyzicus. Here, in a quiet shelter on Mount Olympus, Constantine also moved for several years, in the interval between travels to the Saracens and the Khazars. The older brother, Methodius, walked through life on a straight, clear path. Only twice did he change its direction: the first time - by going to the monastery, and the second - again returning under the influence of his younger brother to active work and struggle.

Cyril was the youngest of the brothers, from infancy he discovered extraordinary mental capacity but was not in good health. The eldest, Mikhail, even in children's games defended the youngest, weak with a disproportionately large head, with small and short arms. He will protect his younger brother until his death - both in Moravia, and at the cathedral in Venice, and before the papal throne. And then he will continue his brotherly work in written wisdom. And, holding hands, they will go down in the history of world culture.

Cyril was educated in Constantinople at the Magnavrian school, the best educational institution Byzantium. Cyril's education was taken care of by the secretary of state Theoctist himself. Before reaching the age of 15, Cyril was already reading the works of the most thoughtful church father, Gregory the Theologian. A capable boy was taken to the court of Emperor Michael III, as a comrade in teaching to his son. Under the guidance of the best mentors - including Photius, the future famous Patriarch of Constantinople - Cyril studied ancient literature, rhetoric, grammar, dialectics, astronomy, music and other "Hellenic arts". The friendship of Cyril and Photius largely predetermined the future fate of Cyril. In 850, Cyril became a professor at the Magnavra school. Rejecting a profitable marriage and a brilliant career, Cyril accepted the priesthood, and after secretly leaving for a monastery, he began to teach philosophy (hence the nickname Konstantin - "Philosopher"). Proximity with Photius affected Cyril's struggle with the iconoclasts. He wins a brilliant victory over the experienced and ardent leader of the iconoclasts, which undoubtedly gives Constantine wide fame. The wisdom and strength of faith of the still very young Constantine were so great that he managed to defeat the leader of the heretic iconoclasts Annius in the debate. After this victory, Constantine was sent by the emperor to debate the Holy Trinity with the Saracens (Muslims) and also won. Returning, Saint Constantine withdrew to his brother Saint Methodius on Olympus, spending time in unceasing prayer and reading the works of the holy fathers.

The "Life" of the saint testifies that he knew Hebrew, Slavic, Greek, Latin and Arabic. Rejecting a profitable marriage, as well as the administrative career offered by the emperor, Cyril became the patriarchal librarian at Hagia Sophia. Soon he secretly retired to a monastery for half a year, and upon his return he taught philosophy (external - Hellenic and internal - Christian) at the court school - the higher educational institution of Byzantium. Then he received the nickname "Philosopher", which remained with him forever. Constantine was called the Philosopher for a reason. Every now and then he broke out of the noisy Byzantium somewhere in solitude. I read and thought for a long time. And then, having accumulated another stock energy and thoughts, generously wasted it in travels, disputes, disputes, in scientific and literary creativity. Cyril's education was highly valued in the highest circles of Constantinople, he was often attracted to various diplomatic missions.

Cyril and Methodius had many students who became their real followers. Among them, I would especially like to mention Gorazd Ohrid and St. Naum.

Gorazd Ohridsky - a disciple of Methodius, the first Slavic archbishop - he was the archbishop of Mikulchitsa, the capital of Great Moravia. Revered by the Orthodox Church in the guise of saints, commemorated on July 27 (according to the Julian calendar) in the Cathedral of the Bulgarian Enlighteners. In 885-886, under Prince Svatopluk I, there was a crisis in the Moravian Church, Archbishop Gorazd entered into a dispute with the Latin clergy, headed by Vihtig, Bishop of Nitrava, against whom St. Methodius imposed an anathema. Wichtig, with the approval of the pope, expelled Gorazd from the diocese and 200 priests with him, and he himself took his place as archbishop. Then Clement of Ohrid also fled to Bulgaria. They took with them the works created in Moravia and settled in Bulgaria. Those who did not obey - according to the testimony - the Life of St. Clement of Ohrid - were sold into slavery to Jewish merchants, from whom they were ransomed by the ambassadors of Emperor Basil I in Venice and transported to Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, students created world-famous literary schools in Pliska, Ohrid and Preslavl, from where their works began to spread throughout Russia.

Naum is a Bulgarian saint, especially revered in modern Macedonia and Bulgaria. St. Naum, together with Cyril and Methodius, as well as with his ascetic Clement of Ohrid, is one of the founders of Bulgarian religious literature. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church includes St. Naum among the Seven. In 886-893. he lived in Preslav, becoming the organizer of the local literary school. After he created a school in Ohrid. In 905 he founded a monastery on the shores of Lake Ohrid, today named after him. His relics are also kept there.

Mount St. Naum on the island of Smolensk (Livingston) is also named after him.

In 858, Constantine, at the initiative of Photius, became the head of a mission to the Khazars. During the mission, Constantine replenishes his knowledge of the Hebrew language, which was used by the educated elite of the Khazars after their adoption of Judaism. On the way, during a stop in Chersonese (Korsun), Constantine discovered the remains of Clement, Pope of Rome (I-II centuries), who died, as they thought then, here in exile, and took some of them to Byzantium. The journey deep into Khazaria was filled with theological disputes with Mohammedans and Jews. The whole course of the dispute, Constantine subsequently outlined in Greek for reporting to the patriarch; later this report, according to the legends, was translated by Methodius into the Slavic language, but, unfortunately, this work has not come down to us. At the end of 862, the prince of Great Moravia (the state of the Western Slavs) Rostislav turned to the Byzantine emperor Michael with a request to send preachers to Moravia who could spread Christianity in the Slavic language (sermons in those parts were read in Latin, unfamiliar and incomprehensible to the people). The emperor called Saint Constantine and said to him: "You must go there, for no one can do it better than you." Saint Constantine, with fasting and prayer, embarked on a new feat. Constantine goes to Bulgaria, converts many Bulgarians to Christianity; according to some scholars, during this trip he begins his work on the creation of the Slavic alphabet. Constantine and Methodius arrived in Great Moravia, owning the southern Slavic dialect of Thessalonica (now - Thessaloniki), i.e. the center of that part of Macedonia, which from time immemorial and up to our time belonged to Northern Greece. In Moravia, the brothers taught literacy and involved in translation activities, and not just copying books, persons who spoke, undoubtedly, some northwestern Slavic dialects. This is directly evidenced by lexical, word-formation, phonetic and other linguistic discrepancies in the most ancient Slavic books that have come down to us (in the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter, the Menaions of the 10th-11th centuries). Indirect evidence is the later practice of Grand Duke Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, described in the Old Russian Chronicle, when in 988 he introduced Christianity in Russia as the state religion. It was the children of his “deliberate child” (i.e., the children of his courtiers and the feudal elite) that Vladimir attracted for “book learning”, sometimes even by force, since the Chronicle reports that their mothers wept for them as if they were dead.

After the completion of the translation, the holy brothers were received with great honor in Moravia, and began to teach Divine Liturgy in the Slavic language. This aroused the anger of the German bishops, who celebrated Divine Liturgy in Latin in the Moravian churches, and they rebelled against the holy brothers, arguing that Divine Liturgy could be celebrated only in one of three languages: Hebrew, Greek or Latin. Saint Constantine answered them: “You recognize only three languages ​​worthy of glorifying God in them. But David cries out: Sing to the Lord, all the earth; praise the Lord, all nations; let every breath praise the Lord! And in the Holy Gospel it is said: Go, teach all the languages...” The German bishops were put to shame, but became even more embittered and filed a complaint with Rome. The holy brothers were called to Rome to resolve this issue.

In order to be able to preach Christianity in the Slavic language, it was necessary to make a translation of the Holy Scripture into the Slavic language; however, the alphabet capable of conveying Slavic speech did not exist at that moment.

Constantine set about creating the Slavic alphabet. With the help of his brother Saint Methodius and the disciples of Gorazd, Clement, Savva, Naum and Angelyar, he compiled the Slavic alphabet and translated into Slavonic the books without which Divine services could not be performed: the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter and selected services. All these events date back to 863.

863 is considered the year of birth of the Slavic alphabet

In 863, the Slavic alphabet was created (the Slavic alphabet existed in two versions: the Glagolitic alphabet - from the verb - “speech” and the Cyrillic alphabet; scientists still do not have a consensus which of these two options was created by Cyril). With the help of Methodius, a number of liturgical books were translated from Greek into Slavonic. The Slavs got the opportunity to read and write in their own language. The Slavs not only had their own, Slavic, alphabet, but also the first Slavic literary language was born, many of whose words still live in Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian and other Slavic languages.

Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Slavonic language, which in turn was a kind of catalyst for the creation of the Old Russian literary language, Old Bulgarian and literary languages other Slavic peoples.

The younger brother wrote, the older one translated his works. The younger created the Slavic alphabet, Slavic writing and book business; the elder practically developed what the younger had created. The younger was a talented scientist, philosopher, brilliant dialectician and subtle philologist; the elder is a capable organizer and practical figure.

Konstantin, in the quiet of his refuge, was probably busy completing the work that was in connection with his not new plans for the conversion of pagan Slavs. He compiled a special alphabet for the Slavic language, the so-called "Glagolitic", and began the translation of the Holy Scripture into the ancient Bulgarian language. The brothers decided to return to their homeland and to consolidate their business in Moravia - to take with them some of the students, Moravans, for enlightenment in the hierarchical ranks. On the way to Venice, which lay through Bulgaria, the brothers stayed for several months in the Pannonian principality of Kotsela, where, despite its ecclesiastical and political dependence, they did the same as in Moravia. Upon arrival in Venice, Constantine had a violent clash with the local clergy. Here, in Venice, unexpectedly for the local clergy, they are given a kind message from Pope Nicholas with an invitation to Rome. Having received a papal invitation, the brothers continued their journey with almost complete confidence in success. This was further facilitated by the sudden death of Nicholas and the accession to the papal throne of Adrian II.

Rome solemnly welcomed the brothers and the shrine they brought, part of the remains of Pope Clement. Adrian II approved not only the Slavic translation of the Holy Scriptures, but also the Slavic worship, consecrating the Slavic books brought by the brothers, allowing the Slavs to perform services in a number of Roman churches, and consecrate Methodius and three of his disciples as priests. The influential prelates of Rome also favorably reacted to the brothers and their cause.

All these successes went to the brothers, of course, not easily. A skilled dialectician and an experienced diplomat, Konstantin skillfully used for this both the struggle of Rome with Byzantium, and the fluctuations of the Bulgarian prince Boris between the Eastern and Western churches, and the hatred of Pope Nicholas for Photius, and the desire of Hadrian to strengthen his shaky authority by acquiring the remains of Clement. At the same time, Byzantium and Photius were still much closer to Constantine than Rome and the popes. But over the three and a half years of his life and struggle in Moravia, the main, only goal of Konstantin was the strengthening of the Slavic script he created, Slavic book publishing and culture.

For almost two years, surrounded by sugary flattery and praise, combined with hidden intrigues of temporarily quiet opponents of Slavic worship, Constantine and Methodius live in Rome. One of the reasons for their long delay was Constantine's deteriorating health.

Despite weakness and illness, Constantine makes two new literary works: "The acquisition of the relics of St. Clement" and a poetic hymn in honor of the same Clement.

A long and difficult journey to Rome, a tense struggle with the implacable enemies of Slavic writing undermined the already poor health of Constantine. At the beginning of February 869, he went to bed, took the schema and the new monastic name Cyril, and on February 14 he died. Departing to God, Saint Cyril commanded his brother Saint Methodius to continue their common work - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples with the light of the true faith.

Before his death, Cyril said to his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, led the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t you think to leave the work of teaching and retire to your mountain again.” Methodius outlived his brother by 16 years. Enduring hardships and reproach, he continued the great work - translating sacred books into the Slavic language, preaching the Orthodox faith, baptizing the Slavic people. Saint Methodius begged the Pope to allow the body of his brother to be taken away for burial on native land, but the pope ordered the relics of St. Cyril to be placed in the church of St. Clement, where miracles began to happen from them.

After the death of Saint Cyril, the pope, following the request of the Slavic prince Kocel, sent Saint Methodius to Pannonia, consecrating him to the rank of Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia, to the ancient throne of the holy Apostle Andronicus. After the death of Cyril (869), Methodius continued his educational activities among the Slavs in Pannonia, where Slavic books also included features of local dialects. In the future, the Old Church Slavonic literary language was developed by the students of the Thessalonica brothers in the region of Lake Ohrid, then in Bulgaria proper.

With the death of a talented brother, for the modest, but selfless and honest Methodius, a painful, truly cross path begins, littered with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, dangers and failures. But the lonely Methodius stubbornly, in no way inferior to his enemies, goes this way to the very end.

True, on the threshold of this path, Methodius relatively easily achieves a new great success. But this success generates an even greater storm of anger and resistance in the camp of the enemies of Slavic writing and culture.

In the middle of 869, Adrian II, at the request of the Slavic princes, sent Methodius to Rostislav, his nephew Svyatopolk and Kotsel, and at the end of 869, when Methodius returned to Rome, elevated him to the rank of archbishop of Pannonia, allowing worship in the Slavic language. Inspired by this new success, Methodius returns to Kotsel. With the constant help of the prince, he, together with his students, unfolds a large and vigorous work to spread Slavic worship, writing and books in the Blaten principality and in neighboring Moravia.

In 870, Methodius was sentenced to prison, having received an accusation of violating the hierarchical rights to Pannonia.

He remained in prison, under the most difficult conditions, until 873, when the new pope John VIII forced the Bavarian episcopate to release Methodius and return him to Moravia. Methodius is forbidden to worship Slavic worship.

He continues the work of the ecclesiastical organization of Moravia. Contrary to the prohibition of the pope, Methodius continues worship in the Slavic language in Moravia. In the circle of his activities, Methodius this time also involved other Slavic peoples neighboring Moravia.

All this prompted the German clergy to take new actions against Methodius. German priests turn Svyatopolk against Methodius. Svyatopolk writes to Rome a denunciation of his archbishop, accusing him of heresy, violating the canons of the Catholic Church and disobeying the pope. Methodius manages not only to justify himself, but even to persuade Pope John to his side. Pope John allows Methodius to worship in the Slavic language, but appoints him Bishop of Wiching, one of Methodius' most ardent opponents. Wiching began to spread rumors about the condemnation of Methodius by the pope, but was exposed.

Tired to the limit and exhausted by all these endless intrigues, forgeries and denunciations, feeling that his health was constantly weakening, Methodius went to rest in Byzantium. Methodius spent almost three years in his homeland. In the middle of 884 he returned to Moravia. Returning to Moravia, Methodius in 883. engaged in translation into Slavic full text canonical books Holy Scripture (except Maccabees). Having finished his hard work, Methodius weakened even more. IN last years During his life, Methodius' activities in Moravia proceeded in very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy in every way prevented the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church. In the last years of his life, Saint Methodius, with the help of two disciple-priests, translated into Slavonic the entire Old Testament, except for the Maccabees, as well as the Nomocanon (Rules of the Holy Fathers) and the patristic books (Paterik).

Anticipating the approach of death, Saint Methodius pointed to one of his disciples, Gorazd, as a worthy successor to himself. The saint predicted the day of his death and died on April 6, 885 at the age of about 60 years. The funeral service for the saint was performed in three languages ​​- Slavonic, Greek and Latin. He was buried in the cathedral church of Velegrad.

With the death of Methodius, his work in Moravia came close to ruin. With the arrival of Viching in Moravia, the persecution of the disciples of Constantine and Methodius began, the destruction of their Slavic church. Up to 200 clergy disciples of Methodius were expelled from Moravia. The Moravian people did not give them any support. Thus, the cause of Constantine and Methodius perished not only in Moravia, but among the Western Slavs in general. On the other hand, it received further life and flourishing from the southern Slavs, partly from the Croats, more from the Serbs, especially from the Bulgarians and, through the Bulgarians, from the Russians, the Eastern Slavs, who united their destinies with Byzantium. This happened thanks to the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, who were expelled from Moravia.

From the period of activity of Constantine, his brother Methodius and their closest students, no written monuments have come down to us, except for the relatively recently discovered inscriptions on the ruins of the church of Tsar Simeon in Preslav (Bulgaria). It turned out that these ancient inscriptions were made not by one, but by two graphic varieties of Old Slavonic writing. One of them received the conditional name "Cyrillic" (from the name Cyril, adopted by Constantine during his tonsure as a monk); the other received the name "Glagolitsy" (from the Old Slavonic "verb", which means "word").

Cyrillic and Glagolitic almost coincided in their alphabetical composition. Cyrillic, according to manuscripts of the 11th century that have come down to us. had 43 letters, and the Glagolitic had 40 letters. Of the 40 Glagolitic letters, 39 served to convey almost the same sounds as the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. Like the letters of the Greek alphabet, the Glagolitic and Cyrillic letters had, in addition to the sound, also a numerical value, i.e. were used to denote not only speech sounds, but also numbers. At the same time, nine letters served to designate units, nine - for tens and nine - for hundreds. In Glagolitic, in addition, one of the letters meant a thousand; in Cyrillic, a special sign was used to denote thousands. In order to indicate that the letter denotes a number, and not a sound, the letter was usually highlighted on both sides with dots and a special horizontal line was put above it.

In Cyrillic, as a rule, only letters borrowed from the Greek alphabet had digital values: at the same time, each of the 24 such letters was assigned the same digital value that this letter had in the Greek digital system. The only exceptions were the numbers "6", "90" and "900".

Unlike the Cyrillic alphabet, the first 28 letters in a row received a numerical value in the Glagolitic, regardless of whether these letters corresponded to Greek or served to convey special sounds of Slavic speech. Therefore, the numerical value of most Glagolitic letters was different from both Greek and Cyrillic letters.

The names of the letters in Cyrillic and Glagolitic were exactly the same; however, the time of occurrence of these names is unclear. The arrangement of letters in the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets was almost the same. This order is established Firstly, based on the digital meaning of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic letters, secondly, on the basis of the acrostics of the 12th-13th centuries that have come down to us, and thirdly, on the basis of the order of letters in the Greek alphabet.

The Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets differed greatly in the form of their letters. In Cyrillic, the shape of the letters was geometrically simple, clear and easy to write. Of the 43 Cyrillic letters, 24 were borrowed from the Byzantine charter, and the remaining 19 were built to a greater or lesser extent independently, but in compliance with the unified style of the Cyrillic alphabet. The shape of the Glagolitic letters, on the contrary, was extremely complex and intricate, with many curls, loops, etc. On the other hand, the Glagolitic letters were graphically more original than the Cyrillic ones, much less like the Greek ones.

Cyrillic is a very skillful, complex and creative reworking of the Greek (Byzantine) alphabet. As a result of careful consideration of the phonetic composition of the Old Slavonic language, the Cyrillic alphabet had all the letters necessary for the correct transmission of this language. The Cyrillic alphabet was also suitable for the exact transmission of the Russian language, in the 9th-10th centuries. the Russian language was already somewhat phonetically different from Old Church Slavonic. The correspondence of the Cyrillic alphabet to the Russian language is confirmed by the fact that for more than a thousand years it took only two new letters to be introduced into this alphabet; multi-letter combinations and superscript signs are not needed and almost never used in Russian writing. This is what determines the originality of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Thus, despite the fact that many letters of the Cyrillic alphabet coincide in form with the Greek letters, the Cyrillic alphabet (as well as the Glagolitic alphabet) should be recognized as one of the most independent, creatively and in a new way constructed alphabetic-sound systems.

The presence of two graphic varieties of Slavic writing still causes great controversy among scientists. After all, according to the unanimous testimony of all annalistic and documentary sources, Konstantin developed some one Slavic alphabet. Which of these alphabets was created by Constantine? Where and when did the second alphabet appear? Closely related to these questions are others, perhaps even more important ones. But didn’t the Slavs have some kind of writing before the introduction of the alphabet developed by Constantine? And if it existed, what was it?

Evidence of the existence of writing in the pre-Cyrilian period among the Slavs, in particular among the Eastern and Southern, was devoted to a number of works by Russian and Bulgarian scientists. As a result of these works, as well as in connection with the discovery of the most ancient monuments of Slavic writing, the question of the existence of a letter among the Slavs can hardly be in doubt. This is evidenced by many ancient literary sources: Slavic, Western European, Arabic. This is confirmed by the indications contained in the agreements between the Eastern and Southern Slavs with Byzantium, some archaeological data, as well as linguistic, historical and general socialist considerations.

Fewer materials are available to resolve the question of what the oldest Slavic writing was and how it arose. Pre-Cyrillic Slavic writing, apparently, could only be of three types. So, in the light of the development of the general laws of the development of writing, it seems almost certain that long before the formation of relations between the Slavs and Byzantium, they had various local varieties of the original primitive pictographic writing, such as the “features and cuts” mentioned by the Brave. The emergence of the Slavic writing of the type “devils and cuts” should probably be attributed to the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. True, the oldest Slavic writing could only be a very primitive writing, including a small, unstable and different assortment of simple pictorial and conventional signs for different tribes. This letter could not turn into any developed and ordered logographic system.

The use of the original Slavic script was also limited. These were, apparently, the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, tribal and personal signs, signs of property, signs for divination, perhaps primitive route schemes, calendar signs that served to date the dates for the start of various agricultural works, pagan holidays, etc. P. In addition to sociological and linguistic considerations, the existence of such a script among the Slavs is confirmed by quite numerous literary sources of the 9th-10th centuries. and archaeological finds. Arising back in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, this letter was probably survived by the Slavs even after the creation of an ordered Slavic alphabet by Cyril.

The second, even more undoubted type of pre-Christian writing of the Eastern and Southern Slavs was a letter that can be conditionally called the letter "proto-Cyril". A letter of the “devils and cuts” type, suitable for marking calendar dates, for divination, counting, etc., was unsuitable for recording military and trade agreements, liturgical texts, historical chronicles, and others. complex documents. And the need for such records should have appeared among the Slavs simultaneously with the birth of the first Slavic states. For all these purposes, the Slavs, even before they adopted Christianity and before the introduction of the alphabet created by Cyril, undoubtedly used Greek letters in the east and south, and Greek and Latin letters in the west.

The Greek script, used by the Slavs for two or three centuries before they officially adopted Christianity, had to gradually adapt to the transmission of the peculiar phonetics of the Slavic language and, in particular, be replenished with new letters. This was necessary for the accurate recording of Slavic names in churches, in military lists, for recording Slavic geographical names, etc. The Slavs have advanced far along the path of adapting Greek writing to a more accurate transmission of their speech. To do this, ligatures were formed from the corresponding Greek letters, Greek letters were supplemented with letters borrowed from other alphabets, in particular from the Hebrew alphabet, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars. This is how the Slavic “proto-Cyrillic” writing was probably formed. The assumption of such a gradual formation of the Slavic “proto-Cyrillic” writing is also confirmed by the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet in its later version that has come down to us was so well adapted for the accurate transmission of Slavic speech that this could only be achieved as a result of its long development. These are the two undoubted varieties of pre-Christian Slavic writing.

The third, however, not certain, but only a possible variety of it can be called "proto-verbal" writing.

The process of formation of the alleged proto-verbal writing could take place in two ways. Firstly, this process could proceed under the complex influence of Greek, Jewish-Khazarian, and possibly also Georgian, Armenian and even runic Turkic writing. Under the influence of these writing systems, Slavic “features and cuts” could also gradually acquire an alpha-sound meaning, partially retaining their original form. Secondly, and some Greek letters could be graphically changed by the Slavs in relation to the usual forms of "features and cuts". Like the Cyrillic alphabet, the formation of proto-verbal writing could also begin among the Slavs no earlier than the 8th century. Since this letter was formed on the primitive basis of the ancient Slavic "features and cuts", insofar as by the middle of the 9th century. it had to remain even less precise and orderly than the proto-Cyrillic writing. In contrast to the proto-Cyrillic alphabet, the formation of which took place almost throughout the entire Slavic territory, which was under the influence of Byzantine culture, the proto-glagolic script, if it existed, was apparently first formed among the Eastern Slavs. In conditions of insufficient development in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. political and cultural ties between the Slavic tribes, the formation of each of the three supposed types of pre-Christian Slavic writing should have occurred in different tribes in different ways. Therefore, we can assume the coexistence among the Slavs not only of these three types of writing, but also of their local varieties. In the history of writing, cases of such coexistence were very frequent.

At present, the writing systems of all the peoples of Russia have been built on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. Writing systems built on the same basis are also used in Bulgaria, partly in Yugoslavia and Mongolia. The Cyrillic script is now used by peoples who speak more than 60 languages. Apparently, the Latin and Cyrillic groups of writing systems have the greatest vitality. This is confirmed by the fact that all new peoples are gradually moving to the Latin and Cyrillic basis of writing.

Thus, the foundations laid by Constantine and Methodius more than 1100 years ago continue to be continuously improved and successfully developed up to the present time. At the moment, most researchers believe that Cyril and Methodius created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet by their students.

From the turn of X-XI centuries. Kyiv, Novgorod, centers of other ancient Russian principalities. The oldest Slavic handwritten books that have come down to us, having the date of their writing, were created in Russia. These are the Ostromir Gospel of 1056-1057, the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073, the Izbornik of 1076, the Arkhangelsk Gospel of 1092, the Novgorod Menaions dated to the 90s. The largest and most valuable fund of ancient handwritten books dating back to the written heritage of Cyril and Methodius, as well as those named, is located in the ancient repositories of our country.

The unbending faith of two people in Christ and in their ascetic mission for the benefit of the Slavic peoples - that was the driving force behind the penetration, in the end, of writing into Ancient Russia. The exceptional intellect of one and the stoic courage of the other - the qualities of two people who lived a very long time before us, turned into what we now write in their letters, and add up our picture of the world according to their grammar and rules.

It is impossible to overestimate the introduction of writing into Slavic society. This is the greatest Byzantine contribution to the culture of the Slavic peoples. And he was created by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Only with the establishment of writing begins the true history of the people, the history of its culture, the history of the development of its worldview, scientific knowledge, literature and art.

Cyril and Methodius never in their life collisions and wanderings fell into the lands Ancient Russia. They lived more than a hundred years before they officially baptized here and accepted their letters. It would seem that Cyril and Methodius belong to the history of other nations. But it was they who radically turned the life of the Russian people. They gave him the Cyrillic alphabet, which became the blood and flesh of his culture. And this is the greatest gift to the people of a human ascetic.

In addition to the invention of the Slavic alphabet, during the 40 months of their stay in Moravia, Konstantin and Methodius managed to solve two problems: some liturgical books were translated into Church Slavonic (Old Slavonic literary) language and people were trained who were able to serve on these books. However, this was not enough to spread the Slavic worship. Neither Constantine nor Methodius were bishops and could not ordain their disciples as priests. Cyril was a monk, Methodius was a simple priest, and the local bishop was an opponent of Slavic worship. To give their activities official status, the brothers and several of their students went to Rome. In Venice, Constantine entered into a discussion with opponents of worship in national languages. Popular in Latin spiritual literature was the idea that worship could only be celebrated in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The stay of the brothers in Rome was triumphant. Constantine and Methodius brought with them the relics of St. Clement, Pope, who, according to tradition, was a disciple of the Apostle Peter. The relics of Clement were a precious gift, and the Slavic translations of Constantine were blessed.

The disciples of Cyril and Methodius were ordained priests, while the Pope sent a message to the Moravian rulers, in which he officially allowed worship in the Slavic language: reason and true faith, so that he enlightens you, as you yourself asked, explaining to you in your language the Holy Scriptures, the entire liturgical rite and the holy mass, that is, services, including baptism, as the philosopher Constantine began to do with God's grace and according to the prayers of Saint Clement.

After the death of the brothers, their activities were continued by their students, who were expelled from Moravia in 886, in the South Slavic countries. (In the West, the Slavic alphabet and Slavic writing did not survive; Western Slavs - Poles, Czechs ... - still use the Latin alphabet). Slavic writing was firmly established in Bulgaria, from where it spread to the countries of the southern and eastern Slavs (IX century). Writing came to Russia in the X century (988 - the baptism of Russia). The creation of the Slavic alphabet had and still has great value for the development of Slavic writing, Slavic peoples, Slavic culture.

The merits of Cyril and Methodius in the history of culture are enormous. Cyril developed the first orderly Slavic alphabet and this marked the beginning of the widespread development of Slavic writing. Cyril and Methodius translated many books from Greek, which was the beginning of the formation of the Old Slavonic literary language and Slavic book business. Cyril and Methodius for many years carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. There is evidence that Cyril created, in addition, original works. Cyril and Methodius for many years carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. In the course of all their activities in Moravia and Panionia, Cyril and Methodius, in addition, waged an unceasing selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books.

Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Slavonic language, which in turn was a kind of catalyst for the creation of the Old Russian literary language, Old Bulgarian and the literary languages ​​of other Slavic peoples. The Old Church Slavonic language was able to fulfill this role primarily due to the fact that it initially did not represent something hard and stagnant: it itself was formed from several Slavic languages ​​or dialects.

Finally, when evaluating the educational activities of the Thessalonica brothers, it should be borne in mind that they were not missionaries in the generally accepted sense of the word: they were not engaged in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), because Moravia was already a Christian state by the time of their arrival.

Cyril and Methodius, a story for children about Christian preachers, the creators of the Slavic alphabet and the Church Slavonic language, is summarized in this article.

Brief information about Cyril and Methodius

These two brothers were from Thessaloniki. Their father was a successful officer and served in the province under its governor. Cyril was born in 827, and Methodius in 815. The Greek brothers were fluent in both Greek and Slavic.

Life before monasticism

At the beginning of their journey, they took different paths. Methodius, who was called Michael in the world, was a military man and had the rank of strategist of the province of Macedonia. Cyril, who bore the name Konstantin before being tonsured, on the contrary, from an early age was fond of the science and culture of neighboring peoples. He translated the Gospel into Slavonic. He also studied dialectics, geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, philosophy and rhetoric in Constantinople. Thanks to his extensive knowledge, Constantine could marry an aristocrat and take important positions in the highest echelons of power. But he abandoned all this and became a simple keeper of the library in the Hagia Sophia. Of course, Konstantin did not stay here for a long time and began teaching at the capital's university. And Mikhail at that time also abandoned military career and became the abbot of the monastery on the Small Olympus. Constantine was familiar with the emperor of Constantinople and, on his behalf, in 856 he went with scientists to the Small Olympus. Having met his brother there, they decided to write an alphabet for the Slavs.

Cyril and Methodius, creators of the Slavic alphabet

Their further life is connected with church activity. The prerequisite for the decision to start creating the Slavic alphabet was that in 862 the ambassadors of the Moravian prince Rostislav arrived in Constantinople. The prince asked the emperor of Constantinople to give him scientists who would teach his people the Christian faith in their language. Rostislav argued that his people had been baptized long ago, but worship was conducted in a foreign dialect. And this is very inconvenient, because not everyone understands it. The emperor, having discussed the request of the Moravian prince with the patriarch, sent the brothers to Moravia. Together with their students, they took up translation. First, the Thessalonica brothers translated Christian books into Bulgarian. These were the Psalter, the Gospel and the Apostle. In Moravia, church leaders taught the local population to read and write for 3 years and led services. In addition, they visited Panonnia and Transcarpathian Rus, where they also glorified Christian faith.

Once they had a conflict with German priests who did not want to conduct services in the Slavic language. The Pope in 868 called the brothers to him. Here everyone came to a common compromise that the Slavs can conduct services in their native language.

While in Italy, Konstantin falls seriously ill. Realizing that death is not far off, he takes the monastic name Cyril. On his deathbed, Cyril asks his brother to continue his educational activities. February 14, 869 he died

Educational activities of Methodius

Returning to Moravia, Methodius (he had already taken the monastic name) does what his brother asked. But there was a change of priests in the country, and the Germans imprisoned him in a monastery. Pope John VIII, having learned about the incident, forbade the German ministers of the church to conduct liturgies until they release Methodius. In 874 he was released and became an archbishop. Often rituals and sermons in the Slavic language had to be carried out secretly. Methodius died on April 4, 885.

After the death of both brothers, he was canonized.

Cyril and Methodius interesting facts

• The age difference between Methodius and Cyril becomes 12 years. In addition to them, the family had 5 more sons.
• Cyril taught himself to read at an early age.
• Cyril spoke Slavic, Greek, Arabic, in Latin and Hebrew.
• May 24 is the day of honoring the memory of the brothers.
• Methodius served for 10 years in the monastery on the Small Olympus before they met with his brother and began their common preaching activity.

We hope that the message about Cyril and Methodius briefly helped you to find out information about these Christian preachers. And you can leave your message about Cyril and Methodius through the comment form below.

The brothers Cyril and Methodius, whose biography is at least briefly known to everyone who speaks Russian, were great educators. They developed an alphabet for many Slavic peoples, which immortalized their name.

Greek origin

The two brothers were from Thessaloniki. In Slavic sources, the old traditional name Thessalonica. They were born into the family of a successful officer who served under the governor of the province. Cyril was born in 827, and Methodius in 815.

Due to the fact that these Greeks knew very well, some researchers tried to confirm the guess about their Slavic origin. However, no one has been able to do this. At the same time, for example, in Bulgaria, enlighteners are considered Bulgarians (they also use the Cyrillic alphabet).

Experts in the Slavic language

The linguistic knowledge of the noble Greeks can be explained by the story of Thessalonica. In their era, this city was bilingual. There was a local dialect of the Slavic language. The migration of this tribe reached its southern border, buried in the Aegean Sea.

At first, the Slavs were pagans and lived under a tribal system, just like their German neighbors. However, those strangers who settled on the borders Byzantine Empire, fell into the orbit of its cultural influence. Many of them formed colonies in the Balkans, becoming mercenaries of the ruler of Constantinople. Their presence was also strong in Thessalonica, from where Cyril and Methodius were born. The biography of the brothers at first went in different ways.

Brothers' mundane career

Methodius (in the world he was called Michael) became a military man and rose to the rank of strategist of one of the provinces in Macedonia. He succeeded thanks to his talents and abilities, as well as the patronage of the influential courtier Feoktist. Cyril took up science from an early age, and also studied the culture of neighboring peoples. Even before he went to Moravia, thanks to which he became world famous, Konstantin (name before being tonsured a monk) began to translate chapters of the Gospel into

In addition to linguistics, Cyril studied geometry, dialectics, arithmetic, astronomy, rhetoric and philosophy from the best specialists in Constantinople. Due to his noble origin, he could count on an aristocratic marriage and public service in the highest echelons of power. However, the young man did not wish such a fate and became the custodian of the library in the main temple of the country - Hagia Sophia. But even there he did not stay long, and soon began to teach at the capital's university. Thanks to brilliant victories in philosophical disputes, he received the nickname of the Philosopher, which is sometimes found in historiographic sources.

Cyril was familiar with the emperor and even went with his instructions to the Muslim caliph. In 856, he arrived with a group of students at the monastery on the Small Olympus, where his brother was the abbot. It was there that Cyril and Methodius, whose biography was now associated with the church, decided to create an alphabet for the Slavs.

Translation of Christian books into Slavonic

In 862, ambassadors from the Moravian prince Rostislav arrived in Constantinople. They gave the emperor a message from their ruler. Rostislav asked the Greeks to give him learned people who could teach the Slavs the Christian faith in their own language. The baptism of this tribe took place even before that, but each divine service was held in a foreign dialect, which was extremely inconvenient. The patriarch and the emperor discussed this request among themselves and decided to ask the brothers of Thessalonica to go to Moravia.

Cyril, Methodius and their students set to work. The first language into which the main Christian books were translated was Bulgarian. Biography of Cyril and Methodius summary which is in every Slavic history textbook, is known for the colossal work of the brothers on the Psalter, the Apostle and the Gospel.

Journey to Moravia

The preachers went to Moravia, where they served for three years and taught people to read and write. Their efforts also helped to carry out the baptism of the Bulgarians, which took place in 864. They also visited Transcarpathian Rus and Panonnia, where they also glorified the Christian faith in Slavic languages. The brothers Cyril and Methodius, whose brief biography includes many travels, everywhere found an attentively listening audience.

Even in Moravia, they had a conflict with German priests who were there with a similar missionary mission. The key difference between them was the unwillingness of Catholics to worship in the Slavic language. This position was supported by the Roman Church. This organization believed that it was possible to praise God only in three languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew. This tradition has existed for many centuries.

The great schism between Catholics and Orthodox had not yet happened, so the Pope still had influence on the Greek priests. He called the brothers to Italy. They also wanted to come to Rome to defend their position and to reason with the Germans in Moravia.

Brothers in Rome

The brothers Cyril and Methodius, whose biography is also revered by Catholics, came to Adrian II in 868. He came to a compromise with the Greeks and agreed that the Slavs could conduct worship in their native languages. The Moravians (ancestors of the Czechs) were baptized by bishops from Rome, so they were formally under the jurisdiction of the Pope.

While still in Italy, Konstantin became very ill. When he realized that he would soon die, the Greek took the schema and received the monastic name Cyril, with which he became known in historiography and popular memory. Being on his deathbed, he asked his brother not to give up the common educational work, but to continue his service among the Slavs.

Continuation of the preaching activity of Methodius

Cyril and Methodius, whose brief biography is inseparable, became revered in Moravia during their lifetime. When the younger brother returned there, it became much easier for him to continue his duty than 8 years ago. However, soon the situation in the country changed. The former prince Rostislav was defeated by Svyatopolk. The new ruler was guided by German patrons. This led to a change in the composition of the priests. The Germans again began to lobby for the idea of ​​preaching in Latin. They even imprisoned Methodius in a monastery. When Pope John VIII found out about this, he forbade the Germans to hold liturgies until they released the preacher.

Cyril and Methodius have not yet encountered such resistance. Biography, creation and everything connected with their life is full of dramatic events. In 874, Methodius was finally released and again became an archbishop. However, Rome has already withdrawn its permission to worship in the Moravian language. However, the preacher refused to submit to the changing course of the Catholic Church. He began to conduct secret sermons and rituals in the Slavic language.

The last chores of Methodius

His perseverance was not in vain. When the Germans again tried to denigrate him in the eyes of the church, Methodius went to Rome and, thanks to his abilities as an orator, was able to defend his point of view before the Pope. He was given a special bull, which again allowed worship in the national languages.

The Slavs appreciated the uncompromising struggle waged by Cyril and Methodius, whose brief biography was reflected even in ancient folklore. Shortly before his death, the younger brother returned to Byzantium and spent several years in Constantinople. His last great work was the translation into Slavic of the Old Testament, with which he was assisted by faithful students. He died in 885 in Moravia.

Significance of the activities of the brothers

The alphabet, created by the brothers, eventually spread to Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Russia. Today Cyrillic is used by everyone Eastern Slavs. These are Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The biography of Cyril and Methodius for children is taught within school curriculum these countries.

Interestingly, the original alphabet, created by the brothers, eventually became Glagolitic in historiography. Another version of it, known as Cyrillic, appeared a little later thanks to the work of the students of these enlighteners. This scientific debate remains relevant. The problem is that no ancient sources have come down to us that could certainly confirm any particular point of view. Theories are built only on secondary documents that appeared later.

Nevertheless, the contribution of the brothers is difficult to overestimate. Cyril and Methodius, whose brief biography should be known to every Slav, helped not only spread Christianity, but also strengthen it among these peoples. In addition, even if we assume that the Cyrillic alphabet was created by the students of the brothers, they still relied on their work. This is especially evident in the case of phonetics. Modern Cyrillic alphabets have adopted the sound component from those written symbols that were proposed by the preachers.

Both the Western and Eastern churches recognize the importance of the work carried out by Cyril and Methodius. short biography for the children of educators is in many general education textbooks of history and the Russian language.

Since 1991, our country has been celebrating an annual public holiday dedicated to the brothers from Thessalonica. It is called the Day of Slavic Culture and Literature and also exists in Belarus. In Bulgaria, an order named after them was established. Cyril and Methodius, interesting facts from whose biographies are published in various monographs, still attract the attention of new researchers of languages ​​and history.