Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius - “the founders of our alphabet and our education”

On May 24 all Slavic countries celebrate an annual holiday, the Day of Slavonic Alphabet and Culture, dating back to 1863, honored by the Russian Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, educators of the Slavs, Orthodox preachers, creators of the Slavic alphabet in 863. In 1985, in the USSR, when the 1100th anniversary of the death of Methodius was celebrated, May 24 was proclaimed a holiday of Slavic writing and culture. Since 1986, various Russian cities have become centers of festivities, and on January 30, 1991, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, Slavic Writing and Culture Day received state status, becoming the only state church holiday in Russia.

“This is celebrated by all educated Russia and all Slavic peoples. There is hardly a name more popular and known to all of them than the name of Cyril and Methodius... We recall them as the primary teachers of all Slavs, as inventors of the very alphabet that we have been using with some changes to date”, - scientist and teacher Peter Melgunov noted in his speech "Essay on the life and work of the Slavic primary teachers Cyril and Methodius". This speech "Information about the private gymnasium of Fr. Kreiman in Moscow” (1869), numerous other scientific works devoted to the life and work of these enlighteners and the secrets of the Church Slavonic alphabet, as well as a video lecture by Dmitry Romanov, Doctor of Philology “The History of Cyril and Methodius Writing in Russia” are available on the Presidential Library’s portal in the collections “Russian Language” and “Cyril and Methodius – Slavonic Educators”.  

The brothers, who came from a noble Bulgarian family of Christians from the city of Thessaloniki (Soluni) in Macedonia and received a good education, devoted their lives to the spread of Orthodoxy among the Slavic peoples. Their great merit is that, giving the Slavs the opportunity to pray and read church books in their native language, they created the first Slavic alphabet, named after the youngest of them Cyril (before the tonsure of the monks - Constantine) called the Cyrillic alphabet.

According to professor Yevgeny Golubinsky “Saints Konstantin and Methodius, the Slavic primary teachers” (1885), “...to increase thought and jealousy, and have the courage to compose the alphabet and translate books when no one thought about them, when no one found them necessary when everyone was against them, on this side, the work committed by Konstantin really is a great cause and his merit for us - Slavs, really is a great merit".

Professor Konstantin Zelenetsky in his work “About the Church Slavonic language, its beginnings, educators and historical destinies” (1848) wrote that most scholars “... accepted decisively that the Slavs owed all their literacy and writing to Cyril and Methodius, and that to these primary teachers, "educators for the world," as Chetia says, they had nothing, in this regard".

The Slavologist, historian Alexander Hilferding in the section “Cyril and Methodius” of Volume I of the Collected Works (1868) emphasized that “...Cyril and Methodius really belong to us, a nationwide Slavic letter, that they are indeed the founders of our written language and our education”.

The alphabet, which gave the Slavs written language and the further development of culture, was not just a practical, narrowly applied affair. Hilferding continues: “At the threshold of the historical life of the Slavic tribe, these people are the forerunners of his spiritual unity...”

In Bulgaria, the church tradition of celebrating the “Solun brothers” day dates back to the 11th century, and now it is the official Bulgarian national holiday - the Day of Bulgarian education, culture and Slavic writing.

In Northern Macedonia, the official names for the holiday are the Day of All-Slavic Education and Teachers or the Day of the Holy Solun Brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Day of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Brothers Cyril and Methodius (the festival of Slavic writing) is celebrated on July 5 - on the day they arrived in Moravia - with solemn services in churches. This is the only state-church holiday in Russia as well.

According to Professor Golubinsky, “great people are sent by God to the nations so that they do more or less for the benefit of the latter. In turn, the peoples undertake to reverently preserve the memory of their great people”.