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Slovakia

Mission of St. Constantine and St. Method

Together with my brother Konstantin, we came in 863 as proselytes on the authority of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III. at the invitation of Prince Rastislav to Great Moravia. We built a separate church organization that used the Slavic liturgy. For this occasion, Constantine compiled a Slavic script - Glagolic (later Cyrillic) and translated basic liturgical works into Old Slavic. Constantine appears to us today mainly as a scholar and philosopher, Methodius as an organizer and a great warrior. Even our life destinies were different despite the same work. When we went to Rome together with our disciples in 867, Constantine entered a monastery and took the monastic name Cyril and died two years later. Methodius, ordained as a priest in Rome, returned as a bishop, later an archbishop, and waged a battle with German priests, local pagans, the Soviet and church authorities. He did not finish his fight; when he died, his students were expelled from Great Moravia. They completed the work of their teacher only abroad.