Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles (St. John Maximovitch)

Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles 

By St. John Maximovitch

(Delivered in Shanghai in 1941)

What a joyful cry of gratitude would burst forth from the lips of people who from birth had sat in a dark cave deprived of light, when someone, opening their gloomy dwelling, would pour into it the life-giving rays of the sun and then lead them out into freedom!

Such also should be the feeling of gratitude we experience toward the holy brothers Cyril and Methodios.

To the Slavic tribes who “sat in the land and shadow of death” (Matt. 4:16) of paganism, they brought the light of the true Faith of Christ.

To those who knew nothing of the Kingdom of Heaven, they proclaimed it and showed the way into it.

The servants of false pagan gods they made into servants of the True God!

Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.” (John 10:16)

What does this honorable, though small, gathering in the church of the First-Called Apostle on this present day signify — a gathering such as had never taken place in former years? What church celebration is being observed today?

Today the Church celebrates the memory of the two holy brothers, Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios, who enlightened the Slavic peoples with the faith of Christ, invented an alphabet for them, and translated the Holy Scriptures and church books from Greek into the Slavic language.

Until quite recently we did not honor Saints Cyril and Methodios with a special service on this day. Why then, for almost nine hundred years, was the memory of the holy enlighteners of the Slavs not especially honored in our Church? Probably because the holy brothers did not preach the Christian faith specifically to us Russians, nor did they invent the alphabet and translate the Holy Scriptures and church books specifically for us, but rather for our Slavic brethren — the Moravians, Pannonians, Czechs, Bulgarians, and others. To us these treasures came by inheritance from those Slavic tribes among whom the lust for power of the Roman Pope introduced Latin worship.

May: Day 11: Teaching 2: Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios

May: Day 11: Teaching 2:*
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios
 
(The Merits of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodios for the Slavs)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodios, whose memory is celebrated today, together with his brother Cyril (whose memory is celebrated on February 14), was a teacher of the Slavs, to whose race we Russians also belong in the Christian faith. He came from a noble family in the city of Thessaloniki. Having received an education in his native city, he became governor of a Slavic region in Macedonia. But his heart was not inclined toward the world and its vain pleasures. After ten years of service he withdrew to the Monastery of Polychronion on Mount Olympus, where his brother Saint Constantine soon arrived. In the year 857 both brothers were called to preach to the Slavs. In order to accomplish this great and holy work more successfully, the holy brothers created the Slavic alphabet, translated the liturgical books from Greek into the Slavic language, and for the first time introduced divine services among the Slavs in their native tongue.

Because of the slanders of the German bishops, the holy brothers were summoned to Rome as preachers of the gospel in the Slavic language, while those bishops claimed that the word of God should be read only in the three languages in which the inscription on Christ’s Cross had been written. Pope Adrian vindicated the holy brothers. Saint Cyril, exhausted by his unceasing labors, became gravely ill in Rome and soon reposed there, while Saint Methodios was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Pannonia or Moravia and returned to his flock, where he continued enlightening the Slavs until the end of his life. He reposed in the year 885.

Homily One on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios

By St. John of Kronstadt

"Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct" (Heb. 13:7).

Today the entire Orthodox Church, especially the Slavic Church, celebrates the memory of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios, who enlightened all the Slavic lands with their teachings and led them to Christ.

What treasure is more precious than the treasure of the faith of Christ, the Orthodox faith? Truly, there is no more precious treasure than the treasure of the true faith: because the true faith gives us knowledge of the true God, and unites us with God, and in union with God there is also blessedness; therefore, the Author of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, calls faith in Him both a treasure hidden in a field, and a priceless pearl. And this treasure of the true faith was handed down to us, in our native language, by the aforementioned two equal-to-the-apostles and native brothers, Saints Methodios and Cyril. Our ancestors, like all Slavs, Moravians, Serbs, Czechs, Poles and others, were idolaters in ancient times, giving glory befitting the one, living God to soulless idols. Thus the Russians worshipped Svarog or Perun, Dazhbog or the sun and fire and many other imaginary gods and idols, sacrificed living children to Perun, as the Jews once did to Moloch; they did not know about the sweetest Savior of men, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and about the eternal life granted to those who believe in Him, and they perished in their polytheistic or godless faith.

May: Day 11: Teaching 1: Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios

 

May: Day 11: Teaching 1:
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios
 
(Lessons From Their Lives:
a. We Must Have Brotherly Love and Unanimity, and
b. Cherish our Faith Above All Else)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saints Cyril (in the world Constantine) and Methodios, whose memory is celebrated today, were the children of Leo, the Grand Duke of Thessaloniki, a Slav who received a high education from the Greeks. Their mother's name was Maria. The eldest of the brothers, Methodios, first ruled a Slavic region near Thessaloniki, and then withdrew to Asia Minor, to Mount Olympus, for feats of piety. Cyril studied first at home, then in Constantinople, together with the young Emperor Michael, under the famous learned man Photios, who later became Patriarch. For his extensive knowledge he was called a Philosopher. After completing his studies, Cyril was first a bookkeeper at the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, then taught philosophy. But the world did not bind him to itself, and soon Cyril, leaving all his worldly pursuits, settled with his brother on Mount Olympus.