Saint Cyril (+869) and Saint Methodius (+885) were two brothers from the Byzantine city of Thessalonika who were involved with both religious and civic affairs.
When King Rastislav of Greater Moravia asked for Slavic-speaking clergy to work among his subjects, Photios, patriarch of Constantinople, sent Cyril and Methodius. They, along with their disciples, arrived in the year 863. Their work laid the foundation for Slavic Christianity, leaving the Slavonic language and two alphabets (Glagolitic and Cyrillic) as their legacy.
According to legend, the holy brothers (or their disciples) helped establish the town of Mukačevo as a diocese. While the historical evidence for this is minimal, the fact remains that the Carpatho-Rusyns have always looked to the ministry of Cyril and Methodius as the start of their Christian heritage.
After the deaths of Cyril and Methodius, when the Slavonic-speaking clergy were no longer welcome in Greater Moravia, the disciples moved to the south, and established Ohrid (in present-day Macedonia) as a center of Slavic learning and literature.
This continuation of Saints Cyril and Methodius’ ministry made it possible, in turn, for Byzantine missionaries to be dispatched to Kiev in 988, at the request of Saint Vladimir, resulting in the conversion and baptism of the peoples of Rus’.
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