The Slavic Apostles

Today is also the feast day for Ss. Cyril and Methodius, also known as "the Apostles to the Slavs". These two saints hold a special significance to Slavic Christians like myself. Not only did they bring the faith of Christ to our ancestors, they also made immeasurable contributions to the development of Slavic culture. This is especially true in the area of literature, where their work of translating the Bible and liturgy into Church Slavonic, along with developing the Cyrillic alphabet, laid the foundation for the great works of Slavic writers like Leo Tolstoy, Fydor Dostoevsky, Taras Shevchenko, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and many more.

It also comes as no surprise that the first organization to advocate the greater between all the Slavic nations was named in honour of these two saints!

Pope John Paul II (the first Slavic pope), has always paid homage to these two saints. This was especially true in his 1985 letter Slavorum Apostoli (The Apostles of the Slavs). Even in his last book, Memory and Identity, the late Pope explains the important impact Ss. Cyril and Methodius had not only on the Slavic peoples, but also on the universal Catholic Church, along with the shaping of European civilization. He explained that it was no accident that these two saints are the patron saints of Europe, along with St. Benedict.

So all Catholics should join their Slavic brethren in honoring these two great missionaries of Christ. After all, you do it anyways with the Irish when concerning St. Patrick!