The Presidential Library’s materials illustrate Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius

May 24 Russia celebrates the Slavic Writing and Culture Day. It is timed to the Day of Remembrance of Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, preachers of Orthodoxy who created the Old Church Cyrillic alphabet and Church Slavonic almost 1,158 years ago. This is the only state-church holiday on our country.

The Presidential Library’s portal in the collections Russian Language and Cyril and Methodius - Slavic Enlighteners features rare publications dedicated to the brothers and their activities. This is, for example, the book of the historian Joseph Dobrovsky translated from German Cyril and Methodius, Slavonic teachers (1825), About the Church Slavonic language, its origin, educators and historical destinies (1846) by the philologist and philosopher Konstantin Zelenetsky, A Word on St. Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, enlighteners of the Slavs, in the presence of Slavonic guests, said in St. Isaac's Cathedral by the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest John Yanyshev (1867) and many others.

Descended from a noble Christian family from the city of Thessaloniki (Saloniki) in Macedonia, the brothers could have become soldiers following the example of their father. But they chose the path of Christian preachers: they translated the Bible into Church Slavonic and created the first Slavic alphabet, named in Cyrillic after the youngest of them, Cyril.

The famous Solun brothers were very different. The elder, Methodius, more than once looked with amazed admiration at the younger, who, as it is said in the speech of Professor Yevgeny Golubinsky Saints Constantine and Methodius, the first Slavonic teachers (1885), discovered such a sharpness of abilities that he astonished everyone and was considered a phenomenal boy. ...Through misfortune in fun, as a young boy, he was called to the path of a divine life detached from the bustle of the world with himself ... Constantine ... indulged in reading the works of his father...

Constantine was promised a brilliant career, they said that "he would soon be a strategist", but "the future Apostle of the Slavs" was one of those rare personalities "who, being completely alien to...ambition, have a decisive aversion to all obligations of external life". To the tempting proposal “Konstantin gave a categorically negative answer, worthy of a true philosopher, showing himself to be such a true philosopher in his early 20s”, - noted Professor Golubinsky.

Reading books, traveling, acquaintance with Christian shrines led Constantine to the thought: why in his native Saloniki, in other cities, the majority of whose inhabitants are Slavs, worship is not conducted in the Slavic language?

“The Greeks...considered their language to be a model of perfection, - exactly the same way the Romans thought about their language. All other peoples in their eyes were barbarians...", - the journalist Mikhail Pogodin explains the order that developed at that time in the study St. Cyril and Methodius are Slavs, not Greeks (1864).

Constantine, who knew several languages, could not accept such a view of things. The Presidential Library’s portal features a digital copy of the 1832 brochure The Legend of How Saint Cyril the Philosopher Compiled the Alphabet in the Slavonic Language and the Books Translated from Greek into Slavonic, which contains the words of the preacher.

The work by Konstantin Zelenetsky About the Church Slavonic language, its origin, educators and historical destinies (1846) also casts light on the circumstances under which the Cyrillic alphabet was invented and the translation of Holy Scripture into Slavonic languages ​​was made.

Cyril and Methodius, with the blessing of the Church of Constantinople, went to the West Slavic lands on the mission of glorifying Christianity. In Great Moravia in 863, Cyril, with the help of his brother Methodius and his disciples, compiled the Slavic alphabet and translated the main liturgical books from Greek.

Russian scientists equate the contribution of Cyril and Methodius to the development of Slavic culture to a feat: “Our first St. teachers...- we read in the A Word on St. Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, enlighteners of the Slavs, in the presence of Slavonic guests, said in St. Isaac's Cathedral by the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest John Yanyshev "laid the foundation for our eternal salvation and together with our independence on earth among other tribes and peoples. Nobody can give much to their offspring".