February 11 - To the Slavs

Febuary 11 – To the Slavs

The church was becoming more and more separate as the years passed, with power struggles occurring regularly between Constantinople (East) and Rome (West). Political struggles for Europe and northern Africa were a part of the religious power struggles as well.

The Frankish ruler, Louis supported a man named Rostislav in his desire to rule over the the area of Moravia (the area we know as Czechoslovakia). It didn’t take long, though for Rostislav to want everyone off his back and to be able to control his own lands. He looked to Constantinople for help. The emperor did so and the Patriarch sent missionaries to him. Rostislav was also hoping to evangelize the people in Moravia.

Two brothers from Thessalonika in Greece, Cyril and Methodius answered the call. They learned the native language and began translating the Bible and the liturgy into Slavonic. Now, church leaders weren’t any too happy with the idea of them doing the Mass in any language other than Latin, so another political/religious power struggle began.

The Roman church wasn’t terribly thrilled with the fact that the Eastern church had made inroads into Moravia, so Cyril and Methodius made the trip to Rome to plead their case. They were definitely not stupid boys. They took with them the relics of St. Clement to present to Rome. It definitely made an impact and over the course of their stay there, some disciples that had traveled with them were ordained and the Pope (Adrian II) authorized the Slavic liturgy. The two brothers became Roman monks and then Cyril died the next year.

Methodius returned to Moravia, but then ran into the German clergy who arrested him for some reason and flung him in jail for a few years. The next pope (John VIII), got busy on his behalf and also gave the Slavic church independence. He died in 885 and the Latin liturgy came back to replace the Slavic, at which point the church declined. However, the faith that had been established in this region would remain fiercely independent and will crop up in later years to spawn incredible men who would bring Christianity to a new level.

While Cyril and Methodius were working in Moravia, they did amazing things for the people there. They developed an alphabet, which would become the foundation for others – we know it as the Cyrillic alphabet from which the Russian alphabet was developed. They also developed the first Slavonic Civil Code for Moravia.