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The Footprint of Cyril and Methodius in Slovakia
The journey of two missionaries across to Europe
by Natália Bukovčáková
In Slovakia we celebrate every year the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius. This year, on the 5th of July 2023 it was the 1160 anniversary of their arrival to the country. Cyril and Methodius were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries from Thessaloniki. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the “Apostles to the Slavs”. The first route is connected to the territory of Great Moravia, nowadays Czech and Slovak Republics, where their most important work took place. How did the arrival of Cyril and Methodius affect the Slovak nation and what remains to this day? What fragments of the cultural heritage and message they brought are still present in society and how do people in Slovakia remind them nowadays?
Who were Cyril and Methodius?
These brothers, along with their siblings, did not take education for granted. Being born and raised in a richer and socially better-off family in the city of Thessaloniki came with its own set of obligations. They were made to learn Greek from childhood, which was the official language in Byzantium as well as being taught Latin. In addition, a Slavic community lived around the city of Thessaloniki which ended up having an impact on their own lives.
Saint Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) was one of the most important scholars of his time; he was an excellent theologian, orator, and political scientist. He worked as a professor of philosophy in Constantinople and successfully led several foreign religion-political missions and many theological debates. Constantine the Philosopher took the monastic name Cyril just before his death.
The elder of the brothers was Methodius (815–885). However, unlike Constantine, he excelled in the political sphere. Method, in turn, was gifted with excellent organizational administrative skills, which proved to be valuable in diplomatic service with the Byzantine emperor as the governor of a Byzantine province inhabited by Slavs. He lived in the monastery together with his brother for several years. It was during this period that their joint activity began.
Their journey to the territory of Slovakia (at that time Great Moravia)
In 833, Prince Mojmír and his guild attacked the Principality of Nitra and conquered it. The union of these two principalities created a large and strong state unit of Slavs - old Slovaks, then known as Great Moravia. In Great Moravia (nowadays Moravia and Slovakia) they spoke Old Slovak and the liturgical language was Latin.
In 862, the Great Moravian ruler Rastislav addressed the Byzantine ruler Michael III. (842867 emperor of the Byzantine Empire), to send him missionaries who would favour the spread of the Christian faith in the language spoken by his people. Rastislav needed not only religious teachers for his country, but also political support to stabilize power and help in the fight for independence from the Frankish rule.
Cyril and Methodius were chosen for the mission because of their knowledge of the language. Christianity was already present in Slovakia before but with the arrival of Cyril and Methodius there was a complete disappearance of “paganism” and association with the Christian faith. Even before leaving for the mission Cyril created an alphabet - Glagolitic script - adapted to the Slavic language, and with this he began to translate the holy books. They arrived in Great Moravia in the summer of 863.
From the beginning of their stay in Great Moravia they had to face the criticism of Bavarian (ie East Franconian) priests, representatives of Western (ie not Byzantine) Christianity, who feared that they would lose influence in the country.
The Frankish priests, on the other hand, wanted to be the movers of events themselves and rejected everything other than Latin - a language incomprehensible to the Slavs. Frankish priests accused the brothers of blasphemy. They believed that God understands only Hebrew, Greek and Latin and therefore religious people do not need to translate anything. However, the common people who participated in the holy masses did not understand the interpretation in these languages.
Later, Pope Hadrian II finally approved Old Slavonic as the fourth liturgical language of the Western Church, alongside Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and so the brothers could continue their work.
The work of Cyril and Methodius in Slovakia
Religious people in Slovakia honour them as those who stood at the cultural and religious birth of our nation, when they brought the faith, compiled the Slavic alphabet, and translated liturgical and biblical texts into Old Slavic.
The emergence of a new Slavic alphabet
Before the introduction of the Glagolitic alphabet, the Slavs in the territory of Great Moravia used the older Futhark (Old Germanic runes) as a script/alphabet that consisted of 24 characters. The alphabet was also used by the Germanic-speaking population of Central Europe from the 2nd to the 7th century AD. Runes also had a divination character and were also used for counting. The knowledge of runes among the Germanic tribes disappeared approximately during the 7th century at the time of intensive Christianization. Christianity with its own alphabet thus displaced the old runes.
Cyril gave the first letter of the new alphabet - Glagolitic script - the shape of a cross, which made the emerging letter a blessed one. He also looked for other letters in other alphabets, but above all in Greek. Later, Cyrillic alphabet developed from it. Historically, it was maintained for the longest time in Croatia.
Establishment of church schools
During their tenure, they developed a multifaceted religious and cultural activity - they founded church schools and contributed to the development of education and culture.
In 863 Cyril founded the so-called The Great Moravian Academy where future Slavic priests and administrative workers were educated and which became a centre of Slavic literature. The location of the school is unknown, but according to archaeological findings there was a church school at Devín Castle (Slovakia). On the initiative of Cyril and Methodius, an archbishopric was also established in the territory of Great Moravia and a bishopric in Nitra.
Translations
They translated almost the entire Bible, liturgical texts, and other religious texts into Old Slavic. Some of them were later even adapted to the local dialect of Old Slavic. They also translated “Zakonsudnyjlyudem” (Court Code for Laymen), which is the oldest preserved Slavic legal document.
In addition to translating the Bible, Cyril wrote his own work, the now well-known poem called Proglas. It is clearly inspired by biblical texts, and it is a preface to the Old Slavonic translation of the Gospel. In it, he celebrates the gift of writing to the Slavs and also blesses his translation work which he leaves to them. This poem stands at the beginning of the history of Slovak literature.
The Cyrillic-Method tradition in Slovakia nowadays
Among the interesting things in Slovakia is a large number of churches and temples that were consecrated by the „Brothers of Thessaloniki“ and still stand today as a legacy of their work. In total, there are 85 of them (there are only 2 in Greece) and they are scattered throughout the republic. They belong to all the main churches in Slovakia - there are 58 Roman Catholic, 16 Greek Catholic, 9 Orthodox, one Evangelical and one Ecumenical.
Elements with the influence of the cult of St. Cyril and Methodius can be found e.g. in interior sculptures and exterior sculptures, plaques, coats of arms, names of streets, town districts, squares, including two universities - in Trnava (University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius) and Nitra (Constantine the Philosopher University).
National holiday and celebrations
Nitra was one of the most important cultural, religious, and political centers of Great Moravia. It is in this city that the biggest celebrations dedicated to the „Brothers of Thessaloniki“ take place.
Every year in Slovakia we celebrate the “St. Cyril and Method Day” (Slovak: Sviatok svätého Cyrila a Metoda). The National Pilgrimage and Holy mass is streamed on national television which is part of the celebrations.
- Right below the Nitra Castle we can find the statue of St. Cyril and Methodius. The larger-than-life size sculpture was created by Slovak sculptor Ľudmila Cvengrošová who deals with the theme of Great Moravia. This bronze statue of the "Brothers of Thessaloniki“ is also their largest depiction.
- Their likenesses are on a commemorative two-euro coin minted at the Kremnica mint, at the suggestion of Slovakia. As part of the comment procedure, however, the European Commission and two EU member states criticized the presence of religious symbols in the design of the coin, referring to Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which implies religious neutrality. However, the coin was eventually released on July 5, 2013 during the celebrations in Nitra.
- Before the adoption of the euro (January 2009) in Slovakia there was a banknote of 50 Slovak Crowns with the likeness of Cyril and Methodius.
- During the establishment of the first Slovak Republic their likeness was depicted on a coin worth 20 Slovak Crowns.
Archaeologists, historians, and theologians therefore still have a discussion about whether the work of Cyril and Methodius was not only a marginal part of our history, or the famous "Cyril-Methodian tradition” is thus more of a pious legend and myth than a historical reality. However, there are very few surviving testimonies.
So what is the contribution of the mission of the "Brothers of Thessaloniki“ when we currently do not write in Cyrillic and the Byzantine liturgy is celebrated very little in our territory? Moreover, the situation in Great Moravia developed after Method’s death in such a way that his disciples were expelled and Latin Christianity won on our territory which naturally made this territory part of the Western world.
However, if today we want to be inspired by these saints, even through various ideological influences, their message for us can be both the effort for a Christianity that is understandable and comprehensible, but also the courage to step out of our comfort zone and enter into a dialogue with the unfamiliar.
Sources:
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