Cyril

(826-869) and Methodius (c. 815-885). Known as the “Apostles of the Slavs,” these two brothers were from Thessalonica. After their ordinations to the priesthood they went to Constantinople. Cyril was named Constantine until he became a monk. He was the librarian at St. Sophia Church in Constantinople. Around 863 Emperor Michael III and Patriarch Photius sent them to Moravia as missionaries. In Moravia they translated some of the Bible and some of the liturgy into Slavonic and invented the Glagolithic alphabet from which the Cyrillic alphabet was derived. In 868 Cyril entered a monastery in Rome and died there the next year. Methodius was consecrated Bishop by Pope Adrian II and returned to Moravia as Metropolitan of Sirmium (Pannonia). Methodius died in Velehrad in Czechoslovakia. The missionary work of Cyril and Methodius is commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on Feb. 14.