FEBRUARY 14, 2017
7:00 AM, 8:45 AM ORDINARY FORM MASSES
Today is the Memorial of Saints Cyril and Methodius. They lived in the 9th Century, and are known for evangelizing Eastern Europ. They have many titles: "Apostles to the Slavs," "Equal to the Apostles," and "Co-patrons of Europe." They were born in Greece, in the city of Thessalonica. Before going to Eastern Europe, they went to the Abissad Caliphate to try to convert the Muslims, to Khazar to convince the leaders to become Christian, and finally they went to the Slavs. The Slavs are the people in the areas we know now as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovaki, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Russia. In fact, the languages have much overlap. But in the 9th Century, the two saints developed a writing system (there wasn't already an alphabet for the Slavic language), a legal system (the law at the time was "might makes right"), and after that translated the Bible and the Liturgy to evangelize the Slavs. The written script they developed is called Galgolitic, and it evolved into Cyrillic – the script used to write Russian today. They have many feast days, owing to their popularity in Eastern Europe and other factors in choosing feasts for saints. Just prior to 1970, their feast was July 5, but it was returned to February 14 in 1970.
What we learn from today's saints is that it takes a foundation to properly know the Faith. They had to create an alphabet and civil infrastructure first. For us, it would mean learning to read, going to Mass, praying every day, and reading Scripture. Without a foundation, we run the risk of having a distorted understanding of our Faith.
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