Home > Saint Methodius
Saint Methodius was a bishop of Great Moravia ("Moravia") (born Thessaloniki, Greece, 826; he died in the (unknown) capital of Great Moravia, April 6, 885). Saint Methodius was the main translator of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic (see also Slavic languages) using the Glagolitic alphabet created by his brother and collaborator Saint Cyril.
1 Mission to the Slavs
But both brothers were now to enter upon the work which gives them their historical importance. An independent Slavonic principality had been established by Rastislav, the king of Great Moravia; and to maintain this independence it was necessary to assert also the ecclesiastical independence of his state, which had been, at least externally, Christianized from the German side. Hauck accepts the statement of Theotmar that Rastislav expelled the Teutonic clergy at the beginning of his contest with the Franks. He then turned
to Constantinople to find teachers for his people. It is obvious that the opportunity to extend Byzantine influence among the Slavs would be there; and the task was entrusted to Cyril and Methodius. Their first work seems to have been the training of assistants. The assertion that Cyril now undertook his translation of part of the Bible contradicts the statement of the Legenda that it had already been made before his undertaking of the Great Moravian mission; and the oldest Slavonic documents have a southern character. Cyril is designated by both friends and opponents of contemporary date as the inventor of the Slavonic script. This would not exclude the possibility of his having made use of earlier letters, but implies only that before him the Slavs had no distinct script of their own for use in writing books. The so-called Glagolitic script can be traced back at least to the middle of the tenth century, possibly even into the ninth; it presupposes a man of some education as its originator, and is evidently derived principally from the Greek, but also partly from the Latin cursive. The Cyrillian script is undoubtedly later in origin, and apparently was first used in Bulgaria. It is impossible to determine with certainty what portions of the Bible the brothers translated. Apparently the New Testament and the PsalmsPsalms Tehilim , in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Because the book consists of songs or chants, a psalm can be used to mean any religious chant or poem of praise. This article, however, d were the first, followed by other lessons from the Old TestamentThe Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures constitutes the first major part of the Christian Bible, usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry (or wisdom books) and prophecy. All of those books were written before the birth of Jesus. Canon o. The
Translatio speaks only of a version of the GospelFor the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. Gospels are a genre of ancient literature concerning the life of Jesus. The word derives from the Old English word for " Good News", a translation of the Greek word , euangelion''. This refers tos by
Cyril, and the Vita Methodii only of the evangelium Slovenicum; but this does not prove that Cyril did not translate other liturgical selections (see BIBLE VERSIONS, B, XVI., § 1). The question has been much discussed which liturgy, that of RomeRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman or that of ConstantinopleConstantinople (Roman name: Constantinopolis; Greek: Konstantinoupolis or ) is the former name of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Its original name was Byzantium ( Greek: Byzantion or Bυζαντιο&nu pronounced roughly B, they took as a source. Since, however, the opposition objected only to the liturgical use of the Slavonic language, not to any alleged departure from the Roman type of liturgy, it is probable that the Western source was used. This view is confirmed by the "Prague Fragments" and by certain Old Glagolitic liturgical fragments brought from JerusalemCapitals in Asia For alternate uses see Jerusalem (disambiguation Jerusalem ( Modern Hebrew: Yerushalayim Biblical Hebrew: Arabic: al-Quds see also Names of Jerusalem) is an ancient Middle Eastern city of key importance to the religions of Judaism, Christ to Kief and there discovered by Saresnewsky-- probably the oldest document for the Slavonic tongue; these adhere closely to the Latin type, as is shown by the words "mass", "preface", and the name of one Felicitas. In any case, the circumstances were such that the brothers could hope for no permanent success without obtaining the authorization of Rome.