Cyril and Methodius Students

Cyril and Methodius Students by Adrian Stanchev

Saints Cyril and Methodius 

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Cyril and Methodius are Byzantine brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria and Pannonia Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title "Apostles to the Slavs" After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs

Mission to the Slavs   

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In 862, both brothers began the work which gives them their historical importance They were sent by the Byzantine emperor Michael III to convert the Western Slavs to Christianity In 863, they began the task of translating the Bible into the and other texts into the Slavic languages and travelled to Great Moravia to promote it For the purpose of this mission, they devised the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet to be used for Slavonic manuscripts. It was suited to match the specific features of the Slavic language Its descendant script, the Cyrillic, is still used by many languages today

The Glagolitic Alphabet

Students of Cyril and Methodius 

In the years 883-885 the followers of Cyril and Methodius were educated by the two brothers in Great Moravian Academy founded by Cyril

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The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire as a simplification of the Glagolitic alphabet which more closely resembled the Greek alphabet

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After the death of Cyril and Methodius Clement, Naum of Preslav, Angelarius and Gorazd were sent to the Bulgarian capital of Pliska, where they were commissioned by Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria to instruct the future clergy of the state in the Slavonic language

Saint Clement of Ohrid 

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Medieval Bulgarian saint, scholar, writer and enlightener of the Slavs He was the most prominent disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius and is often associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, especially their popularization among Christianized Slavs He was the founder of the Ohrid Literary School and is considered as a patron of education and language by most Slavic nations  He is regarded to be the first bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, one of the seven Apostles of the Bulgarian Empire, the patron saint of the Republic of Macedonia, the city of Ohrid and the Macedonian Orthodox Church.

Saint Naum  

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Also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav (c. 830 – December 23, 910) Medieval Bulgarian scholar and missionary among the Slavs Venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church. Naum took part in the historic mission to Moravia together with Cyril, Methodius, Clement, Angelarius, Gorazd and other Slavic missionaries in 863. In 867 or 868 he became a priest in Rome For the next 22 years, he worked with Cyril and Methodius and other missionaries in translating the Bible into Old Church Slavonic and promoted it in Great Moravia and Pannonia Naum was one of the founders of the Pliska Literary School where he worked between 886 and 893

Seven Saints Saints honored by the Bulgarian OrthodoxChurch as the creators and distributors of Glagolitic and Cyrillic       

Cyril Methodius Clement Naum Angelarius Gorazd Sava