CYRIL AND METHODIUS

On May 24 (11), the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The saints were brothers, Methodius was the elder, and Cyril was the younger brother. Since Methodius was later ordained a bishop, and Cyril was a priest and monk, in liturgical calendars their names are not listed alphabetically, but according to seniority in the hierarchy, that is, as Methodius and Cyril. The Orthodox Church calls them “Equal to the Apostles”, and the Catholic Church - “Apostles of the Slavs”.

In 863, Cyril and Methodius, by order of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III (842-867), went on an educational mission to Great Moravia. This mission was carried out at the request of Prince Rostislav (846-870). The latter sought independence from the German East Frankish Kingdom, the pillars of which, in addition to politics and weapons, were to be cultural and ecclesiastical identity and autonomy.

Cyril and Methodius encountered resistance from German Christianity very early on. The reason for this was the translation of the Latin liturgy into the language of the Western Slavs, which the church practice of Western Christianity had not encountered before. According to tradition, the Mass was always served in Latin.

The Roman Church, represented by Hadrian II (869–872), approved the works of Cyril and Methodius. In 869, Cyril (827–869) died suddenly in Rome, having lived only 42 years. Methodius (815–885) was ordained bishop, thus becoming the first Slavic archbishop in history, with jurisdiction over Sirmium, Pannonia and Moravia. He was subordinate to Rome and independent of the German church hierarchy, which was very disturbing.

In 870–873, Methodius was arrested in Regensburg in Bavaria on the slander of the Germans and was subjected to trial and canonical proceedings. Having gained freedom and being acquitted, he continued the work of translating Scripture and liturgical texts into Slavic, which he had begun together with Cyril. He created the theological Academy of Moravia, where future Slavic missionaries were trained.

Persecution against this mission continued soon after his death. The Academy was closed already in 886. The disciples were expelled from Moravia and went to Bulgaria. Thus, in a providential way, the works of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples were transferred to new soil and bore great fruit in the Bulgarian Kingdom, and then, through the latter, in Russian Orthodoxy.

A joint celebration in honor of Cyril and Methodius was established in Bulgaria. It initially arose in the mid-19th century in Constantinople and was celebrated on the day of the foundation of the City, May 11 (24) in the local Bulgarian Orthodox community, as a counterweight and as a Slavic response to the Greek church celebrations celebration in honor of the founding of the Byzantine Capital.

Indeed, in 330, Emperor Constantine the Great founded New Rome on the Bosphorus. Constantinople was not built in an open field. After all, in its place there was an ancient settlement called Byzantium.

From the very beginning, the ruler made great efforts to Christianize this quiet pagan haven. It is known for certain that by the time of Constantine’s death in 337, there were already 15 monasteries in the city. 200 years after its foundation, by the middle of the 6th century, there were about seventy monasteries in Constantinople. Some monasteries were especially famous.

This is the Monastery of the Sleepless Ones. It was named so because worship was continuously performed there. The brethren took turns replacing each other so that the service to God never ceased day and night.

Another pearl of the monastic life of the Great City was the monastery of Theodore the Studite. Thousands of monks lived there. The community life was so strict and consistent that the brethren had nothing of their own. The monks’ clothes were enormous in size and resembled sacks in shape. After the general wash, the monks sorted out the clothes indiscriminately, from Abbot Theodore himself to the youngest novice.

In turn, the monastery of Saint Dalmatius became famous for the fact that Saint Isaac lived there. It was he who was not afraid to personally denounce Emperor Valens for the Arian heresy. Isaac predicted his death in battle with the Persians, which soon happened.

Many centuries later, on the day of Isaac’s memory, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great was born. That is why the famous Saint Isaac’s Cathedral was erected in Saint Petersburg. The amazing succession of Orthodox capitals, for which the Church, as a Society of Believers, wandering in History, is called to give thanks on these Easter days.

“Jesus suffered outside the gates, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood. Let us therefore go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no lasting city, but we seek one to come,” says the Scripture (Hebrews 13:12-14).

Exactly 1,600 years after the founding of Constantinople, in 1930, the Turkish ruler Mustafa Kemal officially renamed the city Istanbul. By creating a new state on the fragments of the former Ottoman Empire, the republican authorities of Turkey sought to erase the memory of the former religious past of the great city and lay a new foundation for a new secular national Turkish statehood. By that time, the capital had been moved to Ankara, and the multi-million population of ancient Asia Minor, today’s Anatolia, was forcibly resettled to the Greek state. The Orthodox presence in these territories was ending. It is important not to forget this tragic history.

“Istanbul - City of Memories” - this is the title of our contemporary, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, his literary work dedicated to Constantinople. Just as it is proclaimed on the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy in connection with the Fathers of the Church, so too on this memorable day of the foundation of Constantinople we pray Eternal Memory to the Holy City and all its pious heroes and saints.

Just seven years after the founding of New Rome on the Bosphorus, Constantine died. On his deathbed, he was baptized. According to his personal will, the first Christian emperor in history was buried in the church he had built, where twelve symbolic tombstones of the apostles had been erected. “Now Constantine is one of them, one of the apostles,” the people said at the time. Thus, the name “Equal to the Apostles” appeared, which began to be used in the Orthodox Church to designate the greatest missionaries of all times and peoples.

Saint Methodius’s brother, Cyril, was named Constantine in monasticism. It is possible that he had the great emperor as his heavenly patron. Such an astonishing coincidence of names and destinies that even the unique joint memorial of Methodius and Cyril was timed to coincide with the founding of the city of Constantine.

Historically, the Ecumenical Patriarchate sought to subjugate and Hellenize Bulgarian Christianity. The emergence of a thirst for independence, like that felt by Rostislav and his small Slavic church against the Germans, is entirely understandable.

Historically, it is indisputable that the Slavic mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius has its origins in Byzantine Orthodox Christianity. The holy brothers were sent from Constantinople, where they had previously grown spiritually and where they had also received their education. From Constantinople, Russia and Bulgaria were soon baptized. Thus, the celebration in honor of Cyril and Methodius on the day of the founding of Constantinople, which likely arose as a protest against the Hellenization of Orthodoxy, is in fact a day of remembrance and gratitude.