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I.
Introduction
1. THE APOSTLES OF THE SLAVS, Saints
Cyril and Methodius, are remembered by the Church together with the great
work of evangelization which they carried out. Indeed it can be said that
their memory is particularly vivid and relevant to our day.
Considering the grateful veneration
enjoyed for centuries by the holy Brothers from Salonika (the ancient
Thessalonica), especially among the Slav nations, and mindful of their
incalculable contribution to the work of proclaiming the Gospel among
those peoples; mindful too of the cause of reconciliation, friendly
coexistence, human development and respect for the intrinsic dignity of
every nation, by my Apostolic Letter Egregiae Virtutis(1) of 31 December
1980 I proclaimed Saints Cyril and Methodius Co-Patrons of Europe. In this
way I followed the path already traced out by my Predecessors, and notably
by Leo XIII, who over a hundred years ago, on 30 September 1880, extended
the cult of the two Saints to the whole Church, with the Encyclical
Epistle Grande Munus,(2) and by Paul VI, who, with the Apostolic Letter
Pacis Nuntius(3) of 24 October 1964, proclaimed Saint Benedict Patron of
Europe.
2. The purpose of the document of five
years ago was to remind people of these solenm acts of the Church and to
call the attention of Christians and of all people of good will who have
at heart the welfare, harmony and unity of Europe to the ever-living
relevance of the eminent figures of Benedict, Cyril and Methodius, as
concrete models and spiritual aids for the Christians of today, and
especially for the nations of the continent of Europe, which, especially
through the prayers and work of these saints, have long been consciously
and originally rooted in the Church and in Christian tradition.
The publication of my Apostolic Letter
in 1980, which was dictated by the firm hope of a gradual overcoming in
Europe and the world of everything that divides the Churches, nations and
peoples, was linked to three circumstances that were the subject of my
prayer and reflection. The first was the eleventh centenary of the
Pontifical Letter Industriae Tuae,(4) whereby Pope John VIII in the year
880 approved the use of the Old Slavonic language in the liturgy
translated by the two holy Brothers. The second circumstance was the first
centenary of the above-mentioned Encyclical Epistle Grande Munus. The
third was the beginning, precisely in 1980, of the happy and promising
theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches
on the Island of Patmos.
3. In the present document I wish to
make particular reference to the Epistle Grande Munus, by which Pope Leo
III intended to remind the Church and the world of the apostolic merits of
both the Brothers-not only of Methodius, who, according to tradition,
ended his days at Velehrad in Greater Moravia in the year 885, but also of
Cyril, whom death separated from his brother in 869, when he was in Rome,
the city which received and which still preserves his relics with profound
veneration in the Basilica of Saint Clement.
Recalling the holy lives and apostolic
merits of the two Brothers from Salonika, Pope Leo XIII fixed their annual
liturgical feast on 7 July. After the Second Vatican Council, as a result
of the liturgical reform, the feast was transferred to 14 February, which
from the historical point of view is the date of the heavenly birthday of
Saint Cyril.(5) At a distance of over a hundred years from Pope Leo's
Epistle, the new circumstances in which it so happens that there falls the
eleventh centenary of the death of Saint Methodius encourage us to give
renewed expression to the Church's memory of this important anniversary.
And a particular obligation to do so is felt by the first Pope called to
the See of Peter from Poland, and thus from the midst of the Slav nations.
The events of the last hundred years
and especially of the last decades have helped to revive in the Church not
only the religious memory of the two holy Brothers but also a historical
and cultural interest in them. Their special charisms have become still
better understood in the light of the situations and experiences of our
own times. A contribution to this has been made by many events which
belong, as true signs of the times, to the history of the twentieth
century; the first of these is that great event which took place in the
life of the Church: the Second Vatican Council. In the light of the
magisterium and pastoral orientation of that Councils we can look in a new
way-a more mature and profound way-at these two holy figures, now
separated from us by eleven centuries. And we can read in their lives and
apostolic activity the elements that the wisdom of divine Providence
placed in them, so that they might be revealed with fresh fullness in our
own age and might bear new fruits.
II. Biographical Sketch
4. Following the example offered by the
Epistle Grande Munus, I wish to recall the life of Saint Methodius,
without however thereby ignoring the life-so closely liked to it-of his
brother Saint Cyril. This I will do in general terms, leaving to
historical research the detailed discussion of individual points.
The city which saw the birth of the two
holy Brothers is the modern Salonika, which in the ninth century was an
important centre of commercial and political life in the Byzantine Empire,
and occupied a notable position in the intellectual and social life of
that part of the Balkans. Being situated on the frontier of the Slav
territories, it also certainly had a Slav name: Solun.
Methodius was the elder brother and his
baptismal name was probably Michael. He was born between 815 and 820. His
younger brother Constantine, who came to be better known by his religious
name Cyril, was born in 827 or 828. Their father was a senior official of
the imperial administration. The family's social position made possible
for the two Brothers a similar career, which in fact Methodius did take
up, reaching the rank of Archon or Prefect in one of the frontier
Provinces where many Slavs lived. However, towards the year 840 he
interrupted his career and retired to one of the monasteries at the foot
of Mount Olympus in Bithynia, then known as the Holy Mountain.
His brother Cyril studied with great
success in Byzantium, where he received Holy Orders, after having
resolutely refused a brilliant political future. By reason of his
exceptional intellectual and religious talents and knowledge, there were
entrusted to him while he has still a young man delicate ecclesiastical
appointments, such as that of Librarian of the Archive attached to the
great church of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople, and, simultaneously, the
prestigious position of Secretary to the Patriarch of that city. However,
he very soon made it known that he wished to be relieved of these posts,
in order to be able to devote himself to study and the contemplative life,
far from the pursuit of ambition. Thus he retired secretly to a monastery
on the Black Sea coast. He was discovered six months later, and was
persuaded to accept the task of teaching philosophy in the School of
higher learning in Constantinople, where by reason of the excellence of
his knowledge he gained the epithet of The Philosopher by which he is
still known. Later on he was sent by the emperor and the Patriarch on a
mission to the Saracens. On the completion of this task he retired from
public life in order to join his elder brother Methodius and share with
him the monastic life. But once again, together with Methodius, he was
included in a Byzantine delegation sent to the Khazars, acting as a
religious and cultural expert. While staying in the Crimea at Kherson,
they identified what they believed to be the church in which had been
buried Saint Clement, Pope of Rome and martyr, who had been exiled to that
distant region. They recovered his relics and took them with them.(6)
These relics later accompanied the two holy Brothers on their missionary
journey to the West, until they were able to bring them solemnly to Rome
and present them to Pope Hadrian II.
5. The event which was to determine the
whole of the rest of their lives was the request made by Prince Rastislav
of Greater Moravia to the Emperor Michael III, to send to his peoples "a
Bishop and teacher ... able to explain to them the true Christian faith in
their own language".(7)
Those chosen were Saints Cyril and
Methodius, who readily accepted, set out and, probably by the year 863,
reached Greater Moravia-a State then including various Slav peoples of
Central Europe, at the crossroads of the mutual influences between East
and West. They undertook among these peoples that mission to which both of
them devoted the rest of their lives, spent amidst journeys, privations,
sufferings, hostility and persecution, which for Methodius included even a
period of cruel imprisonment. All of this they bore with strong faith and
indomitable hope in God. They had in fact prepared well for the task
entrusted to them: they took with them the texts of the Sacred Scriptures
needed for celebrating the Sacred Liturgy, which they had prepared and
translated into the Old Slavonic language and written in a new alphabet,
devised by Constantine the Philosopher and perfectly adapted to the sounds
of that language. The missionary activity of the two Brothers was
accompanied by notable success, but also by the understandable
difficulties which the preceding initial Christianization, carried out by
the neighboring Latin Churches, placed in the way of the new missionaries.
About three years later, while
travelling to Rome, they stopped in Pannonia where the Slav Prince Kocel,
who had fled from the important civil and religious center of Nitra, gave
them a hospitable reception. From here, after some months, they set out
again for Rome together with their followers, for whom they desired to
obtain Holy Orders. Their route passed through Venice, where the
innovating elements of the mission they were carrying out were subjected
to a public discussion. In Rome Pope Hadrian II, who had in the meantime
succeeded Nicholas I, received them very cordially. He approved the
Slavonic liturgical books, which he ordered to be solemnly placed on the
altar in the Church of Saint Mary ad Praesepe, today known as Saint Mary
Major, and recommended that their followers be ordained priests. This
phase of their efforts concluded in a most favorable manner. Methodius
however had to carry out the next stages by himself, because his younger
brother, now gravely ill, scarcely had time to take religious vows and put
on the monastic habit before he died shortly afterwards, on 14 February
869 in Rome.
6. Saint Methodius remained faithful to
the words which Cyril had said to him on his deathbed: "Behold, my
brother, we have shared the same destiny, ploughing the same furrow; I now
fall in the field at the end of my day. I know that you greatly love your
Mountain; but do not for the sake of the Mountain give up your work of
teaching. For where better can you and salvation?"(8)
Consecrated Archbishop for the
territory of the ancient Diocese of Pannonia, and named Papal Legate "ad
gentes" (for the Slav peoples), he assumed the ecclesiastical title of the
re-established Episcopal See of Sirmium. However, Methodius' apostolic
activity was cut short as the result of political and religious
complications which culminated in his imprisonment for two years, on the
charge of having invaded the episcopal jurisdiction of another. He was set
free only on the personal intervention of Pope John VIII. The new
sovereign of Greater Moravia, Prince Svatopluk, also subsequently showed
hostility to the work of Methodius. He opposed the Slavonic liturgy and
spread doubts in Rome about the new Archbishop's orthodoxy. In the year
880 Methodius was called ad limina Apostolorum, to present once more the
whole question personally to John VIII. In Rome, absolved of all the
accusations, he obtained from the Pope the publication of the Bull
Industriae Tuae,(9) which, at least in substance, restored the
prerogatives granted to the liturgy in Slavonic by Pope John's predecessor
Hadrian II.
When in 881 or 882 Methodius went to
Constantinople, he received a similar recognition of perfect legitimacy
and orthodoxy also from the Byzantine Emperor and the Patriarch Photius,
who at that time was in full communion with Rome. He devoted the last
years of his life principally to making further translations of the Sacred
Scriptures, the liturgical books, the works of the Fathers of the Church
and also the collection of ecclesiastical and Byzantine civil laws called
the Nomocanon. Concerned for the survival of the work which he had begun,
he named as his successor his disciple Gorazd. He died on 6 April 885 in
the service of the Church established among the Slav peoples.
7. His far-seeing work, his profound
and orthodox doctrine, his balance, loyalty, apostolic zeal and intrepid
magnanimity gained Methodius the recognition and trust of Roman Pontiffs,
of Patriarchs of Constantinople, of Byzantine Emperors and of various
Princes of the young Slav peoples. Thus he became the guide and legitimate
Pastor of the Church which in that age became established in the midst of
those nations. He is unanimously venerated, together with his brother
Constantine, as the preacher of the Gospel and teacher "from God and the
holy Apostle Peter",(10) and as the foundation of full unity between the
Churches of recent foundation and the more ancient ones.
For this reason, "men and women, humble
and powerful, rich and poor, free men and slaves, widows and orphans,
foreigners and local people, the healthy and the sick"(11) made up the
throng that amid tears and songs accompanied to his burial place the good
Teacher and Pastor who had become "all things to all men, that I might by
all means save some".(12)
To tell the truth, after the death of
Methodius the work of the holy Brothers suffered a grave crisis, and
persecution of their followers grew so severe that the latter were forced
to abandon their missionary field. Nonetheless, their sowing of the Gospel
seed did not cease to bear fruit, and their pastoral attitude of concern
to bring the revealed truth to new peoples while respecting their cultural
originality remains a living model for the Church and for the missionaries
of all ages.
III. Heralds of the Gospel
8. Byzantine in culture, the brothers
Cyril and Methodius succeeded in becoming apostles of the Slavs in the
full sense of the word. Separation from one's homeland, which God
sometimes requires of those he has chosen, when accepted with faith in his
promise is always a mysterious and fertile pre-condition for the
development and growth of the People of God on earth. The Lord said to
Abraham: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to
the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and
I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing".(13)
In the dream which Saint Paul had at
Troas in Asia Minor, a Macedonian, therefore an inhabitant of the European
continent, came before him and implored him to come to his country to
proclaim there the Word of God: "Come over to Macedonia and help us.(14)
Divine Providence, which for the two
holy Brothers expressed itself through the voice and authority of the
Emperor of Byzantium and of the Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople,
addressed to them a similar exhortation, when it asked them to go as
missionaries among the Slavs. For them, this task meant giving up not only
a position of honour but also the contemplative life. It meant leaving the
area of the Byzantine Empire and undertaking a long pilgrimage in the
service of the Gospel among peoples that, in many aspects, were still very
alien to the system of civil society based on the advanced organization of
the State and the refined culture of Byzantium, imbued with Christian
principles. A similar request has addressed three times to Methodius by
the Roman Pontiff, when he sent him as Bishop among the Slavs of Greater
Moravia, in the ecclesiastical regions of the ancient Diocese of Pannonia.
9. The Slavonic Life of Methodius
reports in the following words the request made by the Prince Rastislav to
the Emperor Michael III through his envoys: "Many Christian teachers have
reached us from Italy, from Greece and from Germany, who instruct us in
different ways. But we Slavs ... have no one to direct us towards the
truth and instruct us in an understandable way".(15) It was then that
Constantine and Methodius were invited to go there. Their profoundly
Christian response to the invitation in this circumstance and on all
similar occasions is admirably expressed by the words of Constantine to
the Emperor: "However tired and physically worn out I am, I will go with
joy to that land";(16) "with joy I depart for the sake of the Christian
faith".(17)
The truth and the power of their
missionary mandate came from the depths of the mystery of the Redemption,
and their evangelizing work among the Slav peoples was to constitute an
important link in the mission entrusted by the Savior to the Church until
the end of time. It was a fulfillment-in time and in concrete
circumstances-of the words of Christ, who in the power of his Cross and
Resurrection told the Apostles: "Preach the Gospel to the whole
creation";(18) "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations".(19) In so
doing, the preachers and teachers of the Slav peoples let themselves be
guided by the apostolic ideal of Saint Paul: "For in Christ Jesus you are
all children of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all
one in Christ Jesus".(20)
Together with a great respect for
persons and a disinterested concern for their true good, the two holy
Brothers had the resources of energy, prudence, zeal and charity needed
for bringing the light to the future believers, and at the same time for
showing them what is good and offering concrete help for attaining it. For
this purpose they desired to become similar in every aspect to those to
whom they were bringing the Gospel; they wished to become part of those
peoples and to share their lot in everything.
10. Precisely for this reason they
found it natural to take a clear position in all the conflicts which were
disturbing the societies as they became organized. They took as their own
the difficulties and problems inevitable for peoples who were defending
their own identity against the military and cultural pressure of the new
Romano-Germanic Empire, and who were attempting to resist forms of life
which they felt to be foreign. It was also the beginning of wider
divergencies, which were unfortunately destined to increase, between
Eastern and Western Christianity, and the two holy missionaries found
themselves personally involved in this. But they always succeeded in
maintaining perfect orthodoxy and consistent attention both to the deposit
of tradition and to the new elements in the lives of the peoples being
evangelized. Situations of opposition often weighed upon them in all their
uncertain and painful complexity. But this did not cause Constantine and
Methodius to try to withdraw from the trial. Misunderstanding, overt bad
faith and even, for Saint Methodius, imprisonment accepted for love of
Christ, did not deflect either of them from their tenacious resolve to
help and to serve the good of the Slav peoples and the unity of the
universal Church. This was the price which they had to pay for the
spreading of the Gospel, the missionary enterprise, the courageous search
for new forms of living and effective ways of bringing the Good News to
the Slav nations which were then forming.
For the purposes of evangelization, the
two holy Brothers-as their biographies indicate-undertook the difficult
task of translating the texts of the Sacred Scriptures, which they knew in
Greek, into the language of the Slav population which had settled along
the borders of their own region and native city. Making use of their own
Greek language and culture for this arduous and unusual enterprise, they
set themselves to understanding and penetrating the language, customs and
traditions of the Slav peoples, faithfully interpreting the aspirations
and human values which were present and expressed therein.
11. In order to translate the truths of
the Gospel into a new language, they had to make an effort to gain a good
grasp of the interior world of those to whom they intended to proclaim the
word of God in images and concepts that would sound familiar to them. They
realized that an essential condition of the success of their missionary
activity was to transpose correctly Biblical notions and Greek theological
concepts into a very different context of thought and historical
experience. It was a question of a new method of catechesis. To defend its
legitimacy and prove its value, Saint Methodius, at first together with
his brother and then alone, did not hesitate to answer with docility the
invitations to come to Rome, invitations received first from Pope Nicholas
I in 867 and then from Pope John VIII in 879. Both Popes wished to compare
the doctrine being taught by the Brothers in Greater Moravia with that
which the holy Apostles Peter and Paul had passed down, together with the
glorious trophy of their holy relics, to the Church's chief episcopal See.
Previously, Constantine and his fellow
workers had been engaged in creating a new alphabet, so that the truths to
be proclaimed and explained could be written in Old Slavonic and would
thus be fully comprehended and grasped by their hearers. The effort to
learn the language and to understand the mentality of the new peoples to
whom they wished to bring the faith was truly worthy of the missionary
spirit. Exemplary too was their determination to assimilate and identify
themselves with all the needs and expectations of the Slav peoples. Their
generous decision to identify themselves with those peoples' life and
traditions, once having purified and enlightened them by Revelation, make
Cyril and Methodius true models for all the missionaries who in every
period have accepted Saint Paul's invitation to become all things to all
people in order to redeem all. And in particular for the missionaries who,
from ancient times until the present day, from Europe to Asia and today in
every continent, have labored to translate the Bible and the texts of the
liturgy into the living languages of the various peoples, so as to bring
them the one word of God, thus made accessible in each civilization's own
forms of expression.
Perfect communion in love preserves the
Church from all forms of particularism, ethnic exclusivism or racial
prejudice, and from any nationalistic arrogance. This communion must
elevate and sublimate every purely natural legitimate sentiment of the
human heart.
IV. They Planted the Church of God
12. But the characteristic of the
approach adopted by the Apostles of the Slavs Cyril and Methodius which I
especially wish to emphasize is the peaceful way in which they built up
the Church, guided as they were by their vision of the Church as one, holy
and universal.
Even though Slav Christians, more than
others, tend to think of the holy Brothers as "Slavs at heart", the latter
nevertheless remain men of Hellenic culture and Byzantine training. In
other words, men who fully belonged to the civil and ecclesiastical
tradition of the Christian East.
Already in their time certain
differences between Constantinople and Rome had begun to appear as
pretexts for disunity, even though the deplorable split between the two
parts of the same Christian world was still in the distant future. The
evangelizers and teachers of the Slavs set out for Greater Moravia imbued
with all the wealth of tradition and religious experience which marked
Eastern Christianity and which was particularly evident in theological
teaching and in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy.
The sacred rites in all the Churches
within the borders of the Byzantine Empire had long been celebrated in
Greek. However; the traditions of many national Churches of the East, such
as the Georgian and Syriac, which used the language of the people in their
liturgies, were well known to the advanced cultural milieu of
Constantinople. They were especially well known to Constantine the
Philosopher, as a result of his studies and of his many contacts with
Christians belonging to those Churches, both in the capital and in the
course of his journeys.
Both the Brothers were aware of the
antiquity and legitimacy of these traditions, and were therefore not
afraid to use the Slavonic language in the liturgy and lo make it into an
effective instrument for bringing the divine truths to those who spoke it.
This they did without any spirit of superiority or domination, but out of
love of justice and with a clear apostolic zeal for peoples then
developing.
Western Christianity, after the
migrations of the new peoples, had amalgamated the newly arrived ethnic
groups with the Latin- peaking population already living there, and had
extended to all, in order to unite them, the Latin language, liturgy and
culture which had been transmitted by the Church of Rome. The uniformity
thus achieved gave relatively young and rapidly expanding societies a
sense of strength and compactness, which contributed to a closer unity
among them and a more forceful affirmation in Europe. It is understandable
that in such a situation differences sometimes came to be regarded as a
threat to a still incomplete unity. One can also understand how strongly
the temptation was felt to eliminate such differences, even by using forms
of coercion.
13. At this point it is an unusual and
admirable thing that the holy Brothers, working in such complex and
precarious situations, did not seek to impose on the peoples assigned to
their preaching either the undeniable superiority of the Greek language
and Byzantine culture, or the customs and way of life of the more advanced
society in which they had grown up and which necessarily remained familiar
and dear to them. Inspired by the ideal of uniting in Christ the new
believers, they adapted to the Slavonic language the rich and refined
texts of the Byzantine liturgy and likewise adapted to the mentality and
customs of the new peoples the subtle and complex elaborations of
Greco-Roman law. In following this programme of harmony and peace, Cyril
and Methodius were ever respectful of the obligations of their mission.
They acknowledged the traditional prerogatives and ecclesiastical rights
laid down by Conciliar Canons. Thus, though subjects of the Eastern Empire
and believers subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, they
considered it their duty to give an account of their missionary work to
the Roman Pontiff. They likewise submitted to his judgment, in order to
obtain his approval, the doctrine which they professed and taught, the
liturgical books which they had written in the Slavonic language, and the
methods which they were using in evangelizing those peoples.
Having undertaken their mission under
orders from Constantinople, they then in a sense sought to have it
confirmed by approaching the Apostolic See of Rome, the visible center: of
the Church's unity.(21) Thus they established the Church with an awareness
of her universality as one, holy, catholic and apostolic. This is clearly
and explicitly seen in their whole way of acting. It can be said that
Jesus' priestly prayer- ut unum sint (22) is their missionary motto in
accordance with the Psalmist's words: "Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol
him, all peoples".(23) For us today their apostolate also possesses the
eloquence of an ecumenical appeal: it is an invitation to restore, in the
peace of reconciliation, the unity that was gravely damaged after the time
of Cyril and Methodius, and, first and foremost, the unity between East
and West.
The conviction held by the holy
Brothers from Salonika, namely that each local Church is called to enrich
with its own endowments the Catholic "pleroma", was in perfect harmony
with their evangelical insight that the different conditions of life of
the individual Christian Churches can never justify discord, disagreement
and divisions in the profession of the one faith and in the exercise of
charity.
14. As we know, according to the
teaching of the Second Vatican Council " the 'ecumenical movement' means
those activities and enterprises which, according to various needs of the
Church and as opportunities offer, are initiated and organized to promote
Christian unity".(24) Thus it seems in no way anachronistic to see Saints
Cyril and Methodius as the authentic precursors of ecumenism, inasmuch as
they wished to eliminate effectively or to reduce any divisions, real or
only apparent, between the individual communities belonging to the same
Church. For the division which unfortunately occurred in the course of the
Church's history and which sadly still persists "not only openly
contradicts the will of Christ, (but) provides a stumbling block to the
world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the
Gospel to every creature".(25)
The fervent solicitude shown by both
Brothers and especially by Methodius by reason of his episcopal
responsibility, to preserve unity of faith and love between the Churches
of which they were members, namely, between the Church of Constantinople
and the Church of Rome on the one hand, and the Churches which arose in
the lands of the Slavs on the other, was and will always remain their
great merit. This merit is all the greater if one takes into account the
fact that their mission was exercised in the years 863-885, thus in the
critical years when there emerged and began-to grow more serious the fatal
discord and bitter controversy between the Churches of the East and the
West. The division was accentuated by the question of where Bulgaria,
which had just officially accepted Christianity, canonically belonged.
In this stormy period, which was also
marked by armed conflicts between neighboring Christian peoples, the holy
Brothers from Salonika preserved a resolute and vigilant fidelity to right
doctrine and to the tradition of the perfectly united Church, and in
particular to the "divine teachings" and "ecclesiastical teachings"(26) on
which, in accordance with the Canons of the ancient Councils, her
structure and organization was founded. This fidelity enabled them to
complete their great missionary tasks and to remain in full spiritual and
canonical unity with the Church of Rome, with the Church of Constantinople
and with the new Churches which they had founded among the Slav peoples.
15. Methodius especially did not
hesitate to face misunderstandings, conflicts and even slanders and
physical persecution, rather than fall short of his exemplary ecclesial
fidelity, and in order to remain faithful to his duties as a Christian and
a Bishop and to the obligations which he had assumed vis-a-vis the Church
of Byzantium which had begotten him and sent him out as a missionary
together with Cyril. Then there were his obligations to the Church of
Rome, thanks to which he fulfilled his charge as Archbishop in "the
territory of Saint Peter";(27) likewise his obligations to that Church
growing in the lands of the Slavs, which he accepted as his own and
successfully defended-convinced of his just-right before the
ecclesiastical and civil authorities, protecting in particular the liturgy
in the Old Slavonic language and the fundamental ecclesiastical rights
proper to the Churches in the various nations.
By thus acting, he always resorted, as
did Constantine the Philosopher, to dialogue with those who opposed his
ideas or his pastoral initiatives and who cast doubt on their legitimacy.
Thus he would always remain a teacher for all those who, in whatever age,
seek to eliminate discord by respecting the manifold fullness of the
Church, which, conforming to the will of its Founder Jesus Christ, must be
always one, holy, catholic and apostolic. This task was perfectly
reflected in the Creed of the 150 Fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council
of Constantinople, which is the unalterable profession of faith of all
Christians.
V. Catholic Sense of the Church
16. It is not only the evangelical
content of the doctrine proclaimed by Saints Cyril and Methodius that
merits particular emphasis. Also very expressive and instructive for the
Church today is the catcehetic and pastoral method that they applied in
their apostolic activity among the peoples who had not yet heard the
Sacred Mysteries celebrated in their native language, nor heard the word
of God proclaimed in a way that completely fitted their own mentality and
respected the actual conditions of their own life.
We know that the Second Vatican
Council, twenty years ago, had as one of its principal tasks that of
reawakening the self-awareness of the Church and, through her interior
renewal, of impressing upon her a fresh missionary impulse for the
proclamation of the eternal message of salvation, peace and mutual concord
among peoples and nations, beyond all the frontiers that yet divide our
planet, which is intended by the will of God the Creator and Redeemer to
be the common dwelling for all humanity. The dangers that in our times are
accumulating over our world cannot make us forget the prophetic insight of
Pope John XXIII, who convoked the Council with the intent and the
conviction that it would be capable of preparing and initiating a period
of springtime and rebirth in the life of the Church.
And, among its statements on the
subject of universality, the same Council included the following: "All men
are called to belong to the new People of God. Wherefore this People,
while remaining one and unique, is to be spread throughout the whole world
and must exist in all ages, so that the purpose of God's will may be
fulfilled. In the beginning God made human nature one. After his children
were scattered, he decreed that they should at length be unified again
(cf. Jn 11:52)... The Church or People of God takes nothing away from the
temporal welfare of any people by establishing that kingdom. Rather does
she foster and take to herself, insofar as they are good, the abilities,
resources, and customs of each people. Taking them to herself she
purifies, strengthens, and enobles them... This characteristic of
universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord
himself... In virtue of this catholicity each individual part of the
Church contributes through its special gifts to the good of the other
parts and of the whole Church. Thus through the common sharing of gifts
and through the common effort to attain fullness in unity, the whole and
each of its parts receive increase".(28)
17. We can say without fear of
contradiction that such a traditional and at the same time extremely
up-to-date vision of the catholicity of the Church-like a symphony of the
various liturgies in all the world's languages united in one single
liturgy, or a melodious chorus sustained by the voices of unnumbered
multitudes, rising in countless modulations, tones and harmonies for the
praise of God from every part of the globe, at every moment of
history-this vision corresponds in a particular way to the theological and
pastoral vision which inspired the apostolic and missionary work of
Constantine the Philosopher and of Methodius, and which sustained their
mission among the Slav nations.
In Venice, before the representatives
of the ecclesiastical world, who held a rather narrow idea of the Church
and were opposed to this vision, Saint Cyril defended it with courage. He
showed that many peoples had already in the past introduced and now
possessed a liturgy written and celebrated in their own language, such as
" the Armenians, the Persians, the Abasgians, the Georgians, the Sogdians,
the Goths, the Avars, the Tirsians, the Khazars, the Arabs, the Copts, the
Syrians and many others".(29)
Reminding them that God causes the sun
to rise and the rain to fall on all people without exception,(30) he said:
"Do not all breathe the air in the same way? And you are not ashamed to
decree only three languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), deciding that all
other peoples and races should remain blind and deaf! Tell me: do you hold
this because you consider God is so weak that he cannot grant it, or so
envious that he does not wish it?".(31) To the historical and logical
arguments which they brought against him Cyril replied by referring to the
inspired basis of Sacred Scripture: "Let every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father";(32) "All the earth
worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name";(33)
"Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!".(34)
18. The Church is catholic also because
she is able to present in every human context the revealed truth,
preserved by her intact in its divine content, in such a way as to bring
it into contact with the lofty thoughts and just expectations of every
individual and every people. Moreover, the entire patrimony of good which
every generation transmits to posterity, together with the priceless gift
of life, forms as it were an immense and many-coloured collection of
tesserae that together make up the living mosaic of the Pantocrator, who
will manifest himself in his total splendour only at the moment of the
Parousia.
The Gospel does not lead to the
impoverishment or extinction of those things which every individual,
people and nation and every culture throughout history recognizes and
brings into being as goodness, truth and beauty. On the contrary, it
strives to assimilate and to develop all these values: to live them with
magnanimity and joy and to perfect them by the mysterious and ennobling
light of Revelation.
The concrete dimension of catholicity,
inscribed by Christ the Lord in the very make-up of the Church, is not
something static, outside history and flatly uniform. In a certain sense
it wells up and develops every day as something new from the unanimous
faith of all those who believe in God, One and Three, revealed by Jesus
Christ and preached by the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This dimension issues quite spontaneously from mutual respect proper to
fraternal love-for every person and every nation, great or small, and from
the honest acknowledgment of the qualities and rights of brethren in the
faith.
19. The catholicity of the Church is
manifested in the active joint responsibility and generous cooperation of
all for the sake of the common good. The Church everywhere effects her
universality by accepting, uniting and exalting in the way that is
properly hers, with motherly care, every real human value. At the same
time, she strives in every clime and every historical situation to win for
God each and every human person, in order to unite them with one another
and with him in his truth and his love.
All individuals, all nations, cultures
and civilizations have their own part to play and their own place in God's
mysterious plan and in the universal history of salvation. This was the
thought of the two holy Brothers: God "merciful and kind",(35) "waiting
for all people to repent,) that all may be saved and come to the knowledge
of the Truth,(36) ... does not allow the human race to succumb to weakness
and perish, and to fall into the temptation of the enemy. But year by year
and at every time he does not cease to lavish on us a manifold grace, from
the beginning until today in the same way: first, through the Patriarchs
and Fathers, and after them through the Prophets; and again through the
Apostles and Martyrs, the just men and the Doctors whom he chooses in the
midst of this stormy life".(37)
20. The message of the Gospel which
Saints Cyril and Methodius translated for the Slav peoples, drawing with
wisdom from the treasury of the Church "things old and new",(38) was
transmitted through preaching and instruction in accordance with the
eternal truths, at the same time being adapted to the concrete historical
situation. Thanks to the missionary efforts of both Saints, the Slav
peoples were able for the first time to realize their own vocation to
share in the eternal design of the Most Holy Trinity, in the universal
plan for the salvation of the world. At the same time, they can recognized
their role at the service of the whole history of the humanity created by
God the Father, redeemed by the Son our Savior and enlightened by the Holy
Spirit. Thanks to this preaching, duly approved by the authorities of the
Church-the Bishops of Rome and the Patriarchs of Constantinople-the Slavs
were able to feel that they too, together with the other nations of the
earth, were descendants and heirs of the promise made by God to
Abraham.(39) In this way, thanks to the ecclesiastical organization
created by Saint Methodius and thanks to their awareness of their own
Christian identity, the Slavs took their destined place in the Church
which had now arisen also in that part of Europe. For this reason, their
modern descendants keep in grateful and everlasting remembrance the one
who became the link that binds them to the chain of the great heralds of
the divine Revelation of the Old and New Testaments: "After all of these,
the merciful God, in our own time, raised up for the good work, for the
sake of our own people, for whom nobody had ever cared, our Teacher, the
holy Methodius, whose virtues and struggles we unblushingly compare, one
by one, to those of these men pleasing to God".(40)
VI. The Gospel and Culture
21. The Brothers from Salonika were not
only heirs of the faith but also heirs of the culture of Ancient Greece,
continued by Byzantium. Everyone knows how important this heritage is for
the whole of European culture and, directly or indirectly, for the culture
of the entire world. The work of evangelization which they carried out as
pioneers in territory inhabited by Slav peoples-contains both a model of
what today is called " inculturation the incarnation of the Gospel in
native cultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life
of the Church.
By incarnating the Gospel in the native
culture of the peoples which they were evangelizing, Saints Cyril and
Methodius were especially meritorious for the formation and development of
that same culture, or rather of many cultures. Indeed all the cultures of
the Slav nations owe their "beginning" or development to the work of the
Brothers from Salonika. For by their original and ingenious creation of an
alphabet for the Slavonic language the Brothers made a fundamental
contribution to the culture and literature of all the Slav nations.
Furthermore, the translation of the
sacred books, carried out by Cyril and Methodius together with their
pupils, conferred a capacity and cultural dignity upon the Old Slavonic
liturgical language, which became for many hundreds of years not only the
ecclesiastical but also the official and literary language, and even the
common language of the more educated classes of the greater part of the
Slav nations, and in particular of all the Slavs of the Eastern Rite. It
was also used in the Church of the Holy Cross in Cracow, where the Slav
Benedictines had established themselves. Here were published the first
liturgical books printed in this language. Up to the present day this is
the language used in the Byzantine liturgy of the Slavonic Eastern
Churches of the Rite of Constantinople, both Catholic and Orthodox, in
Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as in various countries of
Western Europe. It is also used in the Roman liturgy of the Catholics of
Croatia.
22. In the historical development of
the Slavs of Eastern Rite, this language played a role equal to that of
the Latin language in the West. It also lasted longer than Latin in part
until the nineteenth century-and exercised a much more direct influence on
the formation of the local literary languages, thanks to its close kinship
with them. These merits vis-a-vis the culture of all the Slav peoples and
nations make the work of evangelization carried out by Saints Cyril and
Methodius in a certain sense constantly present in the history and in the
life of these peoples and nations.
VII. The Significance and
Influence of the Christian Millenium in the Slav World
23. The apostolic and missionary
activity of Saints Cyril and Methodius, which belongs to the second half
of the ninth century, can be considered the first effective evangelization
of the Slavs.
This activity involved the individual
territories in varying degrees, and was mainly concentrated in the
territories of the then existing State of Greater Moravia. It principally
included the regions belonging to the metropolis of which Methodius was
pastor, namely Moravia, Slovakia and Pannonia, the last being a part of
modern Hungary. Included in the sphere of the wider influence exercised by
this apostolic activity, especially that of the missionaries trained by
Methodius, were the other groups of Western Slavs, particularly those of
Bohemia. The first historical Prince of Bohemia of the dynasty of the
Premyslids, Bozyvoj (Borivoj), was probably baptized according to the
Slavonic Rite. Later this influence reached the Sorbo-Lusatian tribes, and
the territories of southern Poland. However, from the time of the fall of
Greater Moravia in about 905- 906 the Latin Rite took the place of the
Slav Rite and Bohemia was assigned ecclesiastically to the Bishop of
Regensburg and the metropolis of Salzburg. However, it is worthy of note
that about the middle of the tenth century, at the time of Saint
Wenceslaus, there was still a strong intermingling of the elements of both
rites, and an advanced coexistence of both languages in the liturgy:
Slavonic and Latin. Moreover, the Christianization of the people was not
possible without using the native language. And only upon such a
foundation could the development of the Christian terminology in Bohemia
take place, and from here, subsequently, the development and consolidation
of ecclesiastical terminology in Poland. Information about the Prince of
the Vislits in the Lite of Methodius is the most ancient historical
reference to one of the Polish tribes.(41) Insufficient data exist for it
to be possible to link this item of information with the institution in
the Polish territories of a Slav Rite ecclesiastical organization.
24. The Baptism of Poland in 966, in
the person of the first historical sovereign, Mieszko, who married the
Bohemian princess Dubravka, took place principally through the Bohemian
Church, and by this route Christianity reached Poland from Rome in the
Latin form. But the fact remains that the beginnings of Christianity in
Poland are in a way linked with the work of the Brothers who set out from
distant Salonika.
Among the Slavs of the Balkan peninsula
the efforts of the holy Brothers bore fruit in an even more visible way.
Thanks to their apostolate the Christianity which had already for some
time been established in Croatia was consolidated.
Principally through their disciples who
had been expelled from the area where they had originally worked the
mission of Cyril and Methodius was confirmed and developed wonderfully in
Bulgaria. Here, thanks to Saint Clement of Okhrid, dynamic centers of
monastic life arose, and here particularly the Cyrillic alphabet
developed. From here too Christianity moved to other territories, until it
passed through neighboring Romania and reached the ancient Rus' of Kiev,
and then spread from Moscow eastwards. In a few years, in 1988 to be
exact, the millennium of the baptism of Saint Vladimir, Grand Duke of
Kiev, will be celebrated.
25. Rightly therefore Saints Cyril and
Methodius were at an early date recognized by the family of Slav peoples
as the fathers of both their Christianity and their culture. In many of
the territories mentioned above, although there had been various
missionaries, the majority of the Slav population in the ninth century
still retained pagan customs and beliefs. Only in the land cultivated by
our Saints, or at least prepared by them for cultivation, did Christianity
definitively enter the history of the Slavs during the following century.
Their work is an outstanding
contribution to the formation of the common Christian roots of Europe,
roots which by their strength and vitality are one of the most solid
points of reference, which no serious attempt to reconstruct in a new and
relevant way the unity of the Continent can ignore.
After eleven centuries of Christianity
among the Slavs, we clearly see that the heritage of the Brothers from
Salonika is and remains for the Slavs deeper and stronger than any
division. Both Christian traditions-the Eastern deriving from
Constantinople and the Western deriving from Rome arose in the bosom of
the one Church, even though against the background of different cultures
and of a different approach to the same problems. This diversity, when its
origin is properly understood and when its value and meaning are properly
considered, can only enrich the culture of Europe and its religious
tradition, and likewise become an adequate foundation for its hoped- for
spiritual renewal.
26. Ever since the ninth century, when
in Christian Europe a new organization was emerging, Saints Cyril and
Methodius have held out to us a message clearly of great relevance for our
own age, which precisely by reason of the many complex problems of a
religious, cultural, civil and international nature, is seeking a vital
unity in the real communion of its various elements. It can be said of the
two evangelizers that characteristic of them was their love for the
communion of the universal Church both in the East and in the West, and,
within the universal Church, love for the particular Church that was
coming into being in the Slav nations. From them also comes for the
Christians and-people of our time the invitation to build communion
together.
But it is in the specific area of
missionary activity that the example of Cyril and Methodius is of even
greater value. For this activity is an essential task of the Church, and
is urgent today in the already mentioned form of "inculturation". The two
Brothers not only carried out their mission with full respect for the
culture already existing among the Slav peoples, but together with
religion they eminently and unceasingly promoted and extended that
culture. By analogy, today the Churches of ancient origin can and must
help the young Churches and peoples to mature in their own identity and
progress in it.(42)
27. Cyril and Methodius are as it were
the connecting links or spiritual bridge between the Eastern and Western
traditions, which both come together in the one great Tradition of the
universal Church. For us they are the champions and also the patrons of
the ecumenical endeavor of the sister Churches of East and West, for the
rediscovery through prayer and dialogue of visible Unity in perfect and
total communion, "the unity which", as I said on the occasion of my visit
to Bari, "is neither absorption nor fusion".(43) Unity is a meeting in
truth and love, granted to us by the Spirit. Cyril and Methodius, in their
personality and their work, are figures that awaken in all Christians a
great "longing for union" and for unity between the two sister Churches of
East and West.(44) For full catholicity, every nation, every culture has
its own part to play in the universal plan of salvation. Every particular
tradition, every local Church must remain open and alert to the other
Churches and traditions and, at the same time, to universal and catholic
communion; were it to remain closed in on itself, it too would run the
risk of becoming impoverished.
By exercising their own charism, Cyril
and Methodius made a decisive contribution to the building of Europe not
only in Christian religious communion but also to its civil and cultural
union. Not even today does there exist any other way of overcoming
tensions and repairing the divisions and antagonisms both in Europe: and
in the world which threaten to cause a frightful destruction of lives and
values. Being Christians in our day means being builders of communion in
the Church and in society. This calls for openness to others, mutual
understanding, and readiness to cooperate through the generous exchange of
cultural and spiritual resources.
One of the fundamental aspirations of
humanity today is to rediscover unity and communion for a life truly
worthy of man on the worldwide level. The Church, conscious of being the
universal sign and sacrament of salvation and of the unity of the human
race, declares her readiness to accomplish this duty of hers, to which
"the conditions of this age lend special urgency so that all people joined
more closely today by various social, technical, and cultural bonds can
achieve as well full unity in Christ".(45)
VIII. Conclusion
28. It is fitting, then, that the
Church should celebrate with solemnity and joy the eleven centuries that
have elapsed since the close of the apostolic work of the first
Archbishop, ordained in Rome for the Slav peoples, Methodius, and of his
brother Cyril, and that she should thus commemorate the entry of these
peoples on to the scene of the history of salvation and into the of
European nations which during the preceding centuries had already accepted
the Gospel message. Everyone will understand with what profound happiness
I will share in this celebration as the first son of the Slav race to be
called, after nearly two millennia, to occupy the episcopal see that once
belonged to Peter in this city of Rome.
29. "Into thy hands I commend my
spirit": we salute the eleventh centenary of Saint Methodius' death with
the very words which as his Life in Old Slavonic recounts he uttered
before he died, when he was about to join his fathers in faith, hope and
charity: the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Doctors and Martyrs. By the
testimony of his words and life, sustained by the charism of the Spirit,
he gave an example of a vocation fruitful not only for the century in
which he lived but also for the centuries which followed, and in a special
way for our own times. His blessed "passing" in the spring of the year 885
after the Incarnation of Christ (and according to the Byzantine
calculation of time, in the year 6393 since the creation of the world took
place at a time when disquieting clouds were gathering above
Constantinople and hostile tensions were increasingly threatening the
peace and life of the nations, and even threatening the sacred bonds of
Christian brotherhood and communion linking the Churches of the East and
West.
In his Cathedral, filled with the
faithful of different races, the disciples of Saint Methodius paid solemn
homage to their dead pastor for the message of salvation, peace and
reconciliation which he had brought and to which he had devoted his life:
"They celebrated a sacred office in Latin, Greek and Slavonic",(47)
adoring God and venerating the first Archbishop of the Church which he
established among the Slavs, to whom he and his brother had proclaimed the
Gospel in their own language. This Church grew even stronger when through
the explicit consent of the Pope it received a native hierarchy, rooted in
the apostolic succession and remaining in unity of faith and love both
with the Church of Rome and with that of Constantinople, from which the
Slav mission had begun.
Now that eleven centuries have passed
since his death, I desire to be present at least spiritually in Velehrad,
where-it seems-Providence enabled Methodius to end his apostolic life:
-I desire also to pause in the Basilica
of Saint Clement in Rome, in the place where Saint Cyril was buried;
-and at the Tombs of both these
Brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, I desire to recommend to the Most
Blessed Trinity their spiritual heritage with a special prayer.
30. "Into your hands I commend...".
O great God, One in Trinity, I entrust
to you the heritage of faith of the Slav nations; preserve and bless this
work of yours!
Remember, O Almighty Father, the moment
when, in accordance with your will, the "fullness of time" arrived for
these peoples and nations, and the holy Missionaries from Salonika
faithfully fulfilled the command that your Son Jesus Christ had entrusted
to his Apostles; following in their footsteps and in those of their
successors, they brought into the lands inhabited by the Slavs the light
of the Gospel, the Good News of salvation and, in their presence, bore
testimony
-that you are the Creator of man, that
you are our Father and that in you we are all brethren;
-that through the Son, your eternal
Word, you have given existence to all things, and have called human beings
to share in your life without end;
-that you have so loved the world as to
grant it the gift of your only begotten Son, who for us men and for our
salvation, came down from heaven and by the power of the Holy Spirit
became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary and was made man;
-and that finally you have sent the
Spirit of power and consolation so that every human being, redeemed by
Christ, may in him receive the dignity of a child and become a co-heir of
the unfailing promises which you have made to humanity!
Your plan of creation, O Father,
culminating in the Redemption, touches the living man and embraces his
entire life and the history of all peoples.
Grant, O Father, what the whole Church
today implores from you and grant also that the people and the nations
which, thanks to the apostolic mission of the holy Brothers from Salonika,
have known and accepted you, the true God, and through Baptism have
entered into the holy community of your children, may still continue,
without hindrance, to accept with enthusiasm and trust this evangelical
programme and continue to realize all their human possibilities on the
foundation of their teachings!
-May they follow, in conformity with
their own conscience, the voice of your call along the paths shown to them
for the first time eleven centuries ago!
-May their membership of the Kingdom of
your Son never be considered by anyone to be contrary to the good of their
earthly homeland!
-May they render to you due praise in
private and in public life!
-May they live in truth, charity,
justice and in the enjoyment of the messianic peace which enfolds human
hearts, communities, the earth and the entire universe!
-Aware of their dignity as human beings
and children of God, may they have the strength to overcome all hatred and
to conquer evil with good!
But also grant to the whole of Europe,
O Most Holy Trinity, that through the intercession of the two holy
Brothers it may feel ever more strongly the need for religious and
Christian unity and for a brotherly communion of all its peoples, so that
when incomprehension and mutual distrust have been overcome and when
ideological conflicts have been conquered in the common awareness of the
truth, it may be for the whole world an example of just and peaceful
coexistence in mutual respect and inviolate liberty.
31. To you, therefore, God the Father
Almighty, God the Son who have redeemed the world, God the Spirit who are
the sustainer and teacher of all holiness, I desire to entrust the whole
Church of yesterday, today and tomorrow, the Church both in Europe and
throughout the earth. Into your hands I commit this singular wealth, made
up of so many different gifts, ancient and new, placed in the common
treasury by so many different sons and daughters.
The whole Church thanks you, who called
the Slav nations into the communion of the faith, for this heritage and
for the contribution made by them to the universal patrimony. The Pope of
Slav origin in a special way thanks you for this. May this contribution
never cease to enrich the Church, the Continent of Europe and the whole
world! May it never fail in Europe and in the world of today! May it never
fade from the memories of our contemporaries! We desire to accept in its
entirety everything original and valid which the Slav nations have brought
and continue to bring to the spiritual patrimony of the Church and of
humanity. The whole Church, aware of this common treasure, professes her
spiritual solidarity with them and reaffirms her own responsibility
towards the Gospel, for the work of salvation which she is called upon to
accomplish also today in the whole world, unto the ends of the earth. It
is essential to go back to the past in order to understand, in the light
of the past, the present reality and in order to discern tomorrow. For the
mission of the Church is always oriented and directed with unfailing hope
towards the future.
32. The future! However much it may
humanly speaking seem filled with threats and uncertainties, we trustfully
place it in your hands, Heavenly Father, invoking upon it the intercession
of the Mother of your Son and Mother of the Church, the intercession of
your Apostles Peter and Paul, and of Saints Benedict, Cyril and Methodius,
of Augustine and Boniface and all the other evangelizers of Europe who,
strong in faith, hope and charity, proclaimed to our fathers your
salvation and your peace, and amid the toils of the spiritual sowing began
to build the civilization of love and the new order based on your holy law
and the help of your grace, which at the end of the age will give life to
all things and all people in the heavenly Jerusalem. Amen!
To you, dear brothers and sisters, my
Apostolic Blessing.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on
2 June, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1985, the
seventh of my Pontificate.
Notes:
1. JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter
Egregiae Virtutis (31 December 1980): AAS 73 (1981), pp. 258-262.
2. LEO XIII, Encyclical Epistle
Grande Munus (30 September 1880), in Leonis XIII Pont. Max.
Acta, II, PP. 125 137; cf. also PIUS XI, Letter Quod S.
Cyrillum (13 February 1927) to the Archbishops and Bishops of the
Kingdom of the Serbs-Croats-Slovenes and of the Czechoslovakian Republic:
AAS 19 (1927), pp. 93-96; JOHN XXIII, Apostolic Letter
Magnifici Eventus (11 May 1963) to the Prelates of the Slav
Nations: AAS 55 (1963), pp. 434-439. PAUL VI, Apostolic Epistle
Antiquae Nobilitatis (2 February 1969) for the eleventh centenary
of the death of Saint Cyril: AAS 61 (1969), pp.
137-149).
3. PAUL VI, Apostolic Letter Pacis
Nuntius (24 October 1964): AAS 56 (1964), pp.
965-967.
4. Cf. Magnae Moraviae Fontes
Historici, t. III, Brno 1969, pp. 197- 208.
5. Only in a few Slav nations is the
feast still celebrated on 7 July.
6. Cf. Vita Constantini VIII,
16-18: Constantinus et Methodius Thessalonicenses, Fontes, recensuerunt et
illustraverunt Fr. Grivec et Fr. Tomsic (Radovi Staroslavenskog Instituta,
Knjiga 4, Zagreb 1960), p. 184.
7. Cf. Vita Constantini XIV,
2-4; ed. cit., pp. l99f.
8. Vita Methodii VI, 2-3; ed.
cit., p. 225.
9. Cf. Magnae Moraviae Fontes
Historici, t. III, Brno 1969, pp. 197- 208.
10. Cf. Vita Methodii VIII,
1-2: ed. ctt., p. 225.
11. Cf. Vita Methodii XVII,
13: ed. cit., p. 237.
12. Cf. ibid.; cf. also 1 Cor
9:22.
13. Gen 12:1-2.
14. Acts 16:9.
15. Vita Methodii V, 2: ed.
cit., p. 223.
16. Vita Constantini XIV, 9:
ed. cit., p. 200.
17. Vita Constantini VI, 7:
ed. cit., p. 179.
18. Mk 16:15.
19. Mt 28:19.
20. Gal 3:26-28
21. The successors of Pope Nicholas 1,
even though they were concerned at conflicting reports regarding the
teaching and activity of Cyril and Methodius, expressed their full
agreement when they had a direct meeting with the Brothers. Prohibitions
or limitations in the use of the new liturgy are to be attributed more
than anything else to the pressures of the moment, to changing political
alliances, and to the need to maintain harmony.
22. Jn 17:21 f.
23. Ps 117[116]:1.
24. Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis
Redintegratio, 4.
25. Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis
Redintegratio, 1.
26. Vita Methodii IX, 3: VIII,
16: ed. cit., pp. 229; 228.
27. Cf. Vita Methodii IX, 2:
ed. cit., p. 229.
28. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 13.
29. Vita Constantini XVI, 8:
ed. cit., p. 205.
30. Cf. Mt 5:45.
31. Vita Constantini XVI, 4-6:
ed. cit., p. 205.
32. Vita Constantini XVI, 58:
ed. cit., p. 208; Phil 2:11.
33. Vita Constantini XVI, 12:
ed. cit., p. 206; Ps 66 [65]:4.
34. Vita Constantini XVI, 13: ed. cit.,
p. 206; Ps 117 [116]:1.
35. Cf. Ps 112 [113]:4; Jl
2-13.
36. Cf. 1 Tim 2:4.
37. Vita Constantini I, 1: ed.
cit., p. 169.
38. Cf. Mt 13:52.
39. Cf. Gen 15:1-21.
40. Vita Methodii II, 1: ed.
cit., pp. 220f.
41. Cf. Vita Methodii XI, 2-3:
ed. cit., p. 231.
42. Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree
on the Church's Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, 38.
43. JOHN PAUL II, "Speech at the
ecumenical meeting in the Basilica of Saint Nicholas at Bari" (26 February
1984), No. 2: Insegnamenti VII, 1 (1984), p. 532.
44. Ibid., No. 1: loc. cit.,
p. 531.
45. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 1.
46. Cf. Vita Methodii XVII,
9-10: ed. cit., p. 237; Lk 23:46; Ps 31 [30]: 6.
47. Vita Methodii XVII, 11:
ed. cit., p. 237.
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