7 JULY – SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS (Bishops and Confessors)

Cyril (baptised Constantine) and Methodius were brothers born in Thessalonica to a man of rank in 827 and 826 respectively. In 851 they retired to a monastery on Mt. Olympus to live a secluded life of self-discipline. However, in 858 they were sought out and commissioned to instruct the Hunnish Khazars in the Christian faith. After completing this task they retired to the Crimea to make a Slavonic translation of the Bible. There they discovered the relics of Pope Saint Clement I.

In 862 the emperor Michael sent the brothers to minister to the people of Pannonia, Rostislav, Svaetopolk and Kotel. On their way Methodius converted King Boris of the Bulgarians before proceeding to Moravia where they continued to work on their translation of the Bible for several years. In 868 Pope Nicolas I summoned them to Rome after German princes complained of their use of the Slavonic language in the liturgy. They were received by his successor Pope Adrian II who sanctioned the use of the Slavonic liturgy and ordained two of their disciples as bishops.

In the following year Cyril died in Rome on 14 February and Methodius returned to Moravia until, in 878, when Pope John VIII forbade the use of Salvonic in the liturgy and summoned Methodius to Rome. After his appearance the Pope was satisfied of Methodius' orthodoxy and confirmed his position and authority over the Moravian Church. Methodius converted Duke Borivoi of Bohemia and introduced Christianity into the lands under his rule. In Prague he founded a church dedicated to Our Lady, and another dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. He died on 6 April 885.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Twin stars this day arise on the heavens of holy Church, illumining by the radiant beams of their apostolate immense tracts of country. Seeing that they start from Byzantium, one is at first led to suppose that their evolution is going to be performed independently of the laws which Rome has the right to dictate for the movements of the heavens, of which it is said that “they will declare the glory of God and the works of His hand” (Psalm xviii. 2). But the auspicious influence of Saint Clement I, as we will see, through his sacred relics diverts their course towards the Mistress of the world. And presently they can be descried gravitating with matchless splendour in Peter’s orbit, manifesting once more to the whole Earth that all true light in the order of salvation radiates solely from the Vicar of the Man-God. Then once again is realised that word of the Psalmist, that “there are no speeches nor languages where the voices of the messengers of light are not heard” (Psalm xviii. 4).

To the sudden and splendid outburst of the good tidings that marked the first centuries of our era, had succeeded the labours of the second Apostolate where to the Holy Ghost entrusted the gathering in of those new nations called by Divine Wisdom to replace the ancient world. Already, under that mysterious influence of the Eternal City by which she assimilated to herself even her very conquerors, another Latin race had been formed out of those very barbarians whose invasion seemed like a deluge to have submerged the whole Empire. Scarce was this marvellous transformation effected by the baptism of the Franks, the conversion from Arianism of the Goths and of their variously named brethren in arms, than the Anglo Saxons, the Germans, and lastly the Scandinavians, conducted respectively by an Augustine, a Boniface, or an Anscharius, all three monks, came in turn to knock for admission, at the gates of Holy Church. At the creative voice of these new Apostles, Europe appeared, issuing from the waters of the sacred Font.

Meanwhile, the constant movement of the great migration of nations had, by degrees, brought as far as the banks of the Danube, a people whose name began, in the ninth century, to attract universal attention. Betwixt East and West, the Slavs, profiting on the one side of the weakness of Charlemagne’s descendants, and of the revolutions of the Byzantine court on the other, were aiming at erecting their various tribes into principalities, independent alike of both empires. Thus was now the hour chosen by Providence to win over to Christianity and to civilisation a race until then without a history. The Spirit of Pentecost rested on the head of the two holy brethren whom we are today celebrating. Prepared by the monastic life for every devotedness and every suffering, they brought to this people struggling to issue from the shades of ignorance, the first elements of letters, and tidings of the noble destiny to which God, our Saviour, invites men and nations.

Thus was the Slav race fitted to complete the great European family, and God ceded to it a larger territory than He had bestowed on any other in this Europe of ours, so evidently the object of Eternal Predilection. Happy this nation had she but continued ever attached to that Rome which had lent her such valuable assistance in the midst of the early struggles that disputed her existence! Nothing, indeed, so strongly seconded her aspirations for independence as the favour of having a peculiar language in the sacred rites, a favour obtained for her from the See of Peter by her two Apostles. The outcries uttered, at that very time, by those who would fain hold her fast bound under their own laws, showed clearly enough, even then, the political bearing of a concession, as unparalleled as it was decisive, in sealing the existence in those regions of a new people distinct at once from both Germans and Greeks.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyrs Claudius, notary, Meostratus, assistant prefect, Castorius, Victorinus and Symphorian, who were brought to the faith of Christ by St. Sebastian, and baptised by the blessed priest Polycarp. While they were engaged in searching for the bodies of the holy martyrs, the judge Fabian had them arrested, and for ten days he tried by threats and caresses to shake their constancy, but being utterly unable to succeed, he ordered them to be thrice tortured and then precipitated into the sea.

At Durazzo in Macedonia, the holy martyrs Peregrinus, Lucian, Pompeius, Hesychius, Papius, Saturninus and Germanus, natives of Italy. In the persecution of Trajan they took refuge in the town of Durazzo, where seeing the saintly bishop Astius hanging on a cross for the faith of Christ, they publicly declared themselves to be Christians, when, by order of the governor, they were arrested and cast into the sea.

At Perugia, blessed Pope Benedict XI, a native of Treviso, of the Order of Preachers, who in the brief space of his pontificate greatly promoted the peace of the Church, the restoration of discipline and the spread of religion.

At Alexandria, the birthday of St. Pantaenus, an apostolic man, filled with wisdom. He had such an affection and love for the word of God, and was so inflamed with the ardour of faith and devotion, that he set out to preach the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles inhabiting the farthest recesses of the East. At length returning to Alexandria, he rested in peace under Antoninus Caracalla.

At Brescia, St. Apollonius, bishop and confessor.

In Saxony, St. Willibald, first bishop of Eichstadt, who laboured with St. Boniface in preaching the Gospel and converted many nations to Christ.

At Clermont in Auvergne, St. Illidius, bishop.

At Urgel in Spain, St. Odo, bishop.

In England, St. Hedda, bishop of the West-Saxons.

At Gray in Burgundy, blessed Peter Fourier, Canon Regular of the most Holy Saviour, renowned for virtues and miracles.

In England, St. Edelburga, virgin, daughter of an English king.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.