Life
Saints Cyril and Methodius, brothers in body and in spirit, were born in Thessaloniki (Greek: Thessalonike) in the first half of the ninth century, in the family of a distinguished military commander named Leo and his wife Maria, devout Christians. Methodius was the elder, Cyril the younger — his secular name was Constantine, and the name Cyril he received at his monastic tonsure immediately before his death.
Methodius in his youth held distinguished civil and military positions in the Byzantine Empire, governing a Slavic territory, which gave him a thorough knowledge of the Slavic language and mentality. Leaving his state career, he withdrew to a monastery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor, where he devoted himself to the monastic-ascetic life. Constantine, more gifted for learning, was educated in Constantinople at court, where his teacher was none other than Photios, the future Patriarch of Constantinople. Distinguished by exceptional acuity of mind, he received the epithet “the Philosopher” — the Wise One.
The brothers together undertook a mission to the Khazars, where they debated Christianity with Jews and Muslims; Cyril on that occasion discovered the relics of Saint Clement of Rome in Cherson. The decisive moment of their apostolic mission came in 862/863, when the Moravian prince Rastislav sent a petition to Emperor Michael III for missionaries who could preach in the Slavic language. The Emperor dispatched the brothers to Great Moravia.
Constantine-Cyril, in preparation for the mission, created an alphabet adapted to the sounds of the Slavic spoken language — the Glagolitic script. On the basis of that alphabet he and his brother Methodius translated the Holy Scripture and liturgical books into Old Slavonic, giving the Slavs both liturgical literacy and the sanctity of the mother tongue. The mission in Moravia (863–867) bore fruit: Cyril and Methodius instructed the clergy, translated texts, performed worship in Slavonic, and opposed the “three-language heresy” — the position that worship is permitted only in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
On the journey to Rome, undertaken in order to obtain ecclesiastical sanction, the brothers brought the relics of Saint Clement, thereby winning the favor of Pope Hadrian II. The Pope approved the Slavonic Liturgy and ordained Methodius as Archbishop of Pannonia and Moravia.
Cyril reposed in Rome on February 14, 869, in the forty-fourth year of his life, having taken monastic vows immediately before his death. Methodius returned to Moravia as Archbishop, continued the mission despite the opposition of the Frankish clergy, endured imprisonment in Swabia, but held out to the end. He translated almost the entire Holy Scripture into Slavonic, composed legal and ecclesiastical texts, and reposed on April 6, 885.
The Church glorifies them as Equal-to-the-Apostles — bearers of apostolic honor — because to the Slavic peoples, without whom there is no Serbian Church and no Slavic worship, they gave the alphabet, the liturgical word, and the path of salvation.
Tropar (Tone 4)
As Apostolic equals, O teachers of the Slavic peoples Cyril and Methodius, pray to the Master of all to strengthen all the Slavic nations in Orthodoxy and brotherhood, give peace to the world, and save our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 3)
Holy brothers, equal in apostolic honor, Cyril and Methodius, enlighteners of the Slavic peoples — your feast we celebrate with faith and love, for you have become our teachers in truth and intercessors before God.
About the Feast
Kirilometodijdan — the feast of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius — is celebrated on May 24 by the New Calendar, corresponding to May 11 by the Julian reckoning. This is also the Day of Slavic Literacy and Culture, observed in Serbia and all Slavic Orthodox lands as a general national cultural celebration.
The patron feast on Kirilometodijdan is especially widespread among families of teachers, professors, clergy, librarians, and all those whose lives are connected to the written word, education, and the Slavic heritage. It is considered the feast of literacy — of those who transmit knowledge just as the holy brothers transmitted the alphabet.
The feast table falls at a time when the Church prescribes no strict fast (May is outside the fasting periods, unless the feast falls on a Wednesday or Friday), so the table is abundant. Indispensable are the slava bread with red wine, the slava wheat (koljivo) as a memorial for the departed, and various dishes of home cooking. The host of the feast lights the slava candle and receives the priest, who blesses the home, cutting the bread with a prayer to Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Many schools, cultural centers, and reading rooms in Serbia celebrate precisely this day as their patron feast, since the holy brothers are the forebears of everything written, taught, and preserved in Slavic culture and Church.
Note: Saints Cyril and Methodius are also venerated in the Roman Catholic Church (proclaimed co-patrons of Europe in 1980 by Pope John Paul II), but their primary liturgical day in the Orthodox Church is May 11/24.