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Saints Cyril and Methodius facts for kids

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Saints Cyril and Methodius
Cyril-methodius-small.jpg
"Saints Cyril and Methodius holding the Cyrillic alphabet," a mural by Bulgarian iconographer Z. Zograf, 1848, Troyan Monastery
Bishops and Confessors; Equals to the Apostles; Patrons of Europe; Apostles to the Slavs
Born 826 or 827 and 815
Thessalonica, Byzantine Empire (present-day Greece)
Died (869-02-14)14 February 869 and (885-04-06)6 April 885
Rome and Velehrad, Moravia
Venerated in Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Anglican Communion
Lutheranism
Feast 11 and 24 May (Orthodox Church)
14 February (present Roman Catholic calendar); 5 July (Roman Catholic calendar 1880–1886); 7 July (Roman Catholic calendar 1887–1969)
5 July (Roman Catholic Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Attributes brothers depicted together; Eastern bishops holding up a church; Eastern bishops holding an icon of the Last Judgment. Often, Cyril is depicted wearing a monastic habit and Methodius vested as a bishop with omophorion.
Patronage Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Transnistria, Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Europe, Slovak Eparchy of Toronto, Eparchy of Košice

Saints Cyril and Methodius were brothers and 9th century Christian missionaries. They Christianized the Slavic peoples of the Danube. They influenced the culture and religion of all slavic peoples. They received the title "Apostles to the Slavs".

Secular lives

The brothers were both born in Thessalonica. Methodios was born c. 815 or 826 and died in 885. Cyril was born c. 826 and died (under his adopted name Constantine) in 869. Cyril was educated at the University at Constantinople under Photios I of Constantinople. He later taught there when he replaced Photios. Methodios became governor of the province of Opsikion at about the same time.

Missionaries

In 861 the Byzantine Emperor Michael III sent the two brothers to convert the Khazars to Christianity. They continued their religious conversion of the Tatars along the Black Sea for two years. Afterwards the Emperor Michael sent them to Moravia as missionaries. They taught in the Slavic languages and translated the Scriptures into Slavonic. Cyril invented an alphabet called the Glagolitic alphabet. This became the basis for the Cyrillic alphabet. Old Church Slavonic was written in Cyrillic and Glagolitic.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Cirilo y Metodio para niños

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