The Brothers are born in Thessaloniki to rich and respected parents, Leon and Maria. The older brother, Methodius was a prominent soldier since he was 19 years old and served for ten years in the region of river Struma among the Macedonian Slavs, defending the territory from the Bulgarian attacks.
He was joined there by his younger brother Cyril (Constantin), already a prominent scholar in Constantinople. During his stay with his brother, Cyril wrote the first religious text ever in the Slavic language ever, but in the Greek alphabet. After that, Cyril went back to Constantinople, while Methodius gave up on his military career and retired to Olymp Mountain to become a monk. He was also joined by his brother there.
When the Hazar KIng Kagan asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael for preachers of the religion of Jesus, the Emperor sent the two brothers among the Hazars. They baptized the King, many of the elders, and a huge number of common people.
Upon the completion of that mission, the brothers went back to Constantinople, where they created the first Slavic alphabet of 38 letters, named Glagolitsa, and began translating the religious books from Greek to Slavic language.
Summoned by King Rostislav, the Brothers went to Moravia and spread the Christian religion there, multiplying their translations of religious books into Slavic language, and dispersing the translations among the local priests to educate the youth. From there, summoned by the Pope they went to the Vatican, where Cyril got very ill and died on February 14, 869. Methodius went back to Moravia and continue his struggle to spread Jesus’ fate among the Slavic people, despite the horrible prosecution by the German Catholic clergy.
After his death on April 6, 885, his pupils crossed the Danube fleeing the German priests’ prosecution. They were accepted and sponsored by the Bulgarian King Simeon. Two of them, St. Naum and St. Clement of Ohrid, created the modern Cyrillic alphabet, naming it after their teacher and mentor. St. Clement of Ohrid went to Ohrid, where he established the Ohrid University, among the first in Europe.
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