Thursday, January 10, 2013

Celebrating Church Slavonic

FEBRUARY 14TH IS COMING — and you know what that means: Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day!
STS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013 (Catholic News Agency)

On Feb. 14, the universal Church honors two brothers, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who are called the “Apostles of the Slavs” for their tireless work in spreading the Gospel throughout Eastern Europe in the ninth century.

Such was their influence in Church history, through their evangelization efforts, that the late Pope John Paul II named the two brothers the patron saints of Europe along with fifth century monastic leader St. Benedict.

[...]

In order to fulfill this mission, Cyril and Methodius took the step of adapting the Greek alphabet into a script for the Slavonic language. The result was the “Cyrillic” alphabet, which was first used to translate the Bible and liturgical books. It also became the primary means of written communication for large portions of the world, including modern day Russia.

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Quite a few interesting Old Testament pseudepigrapha are preserved only or primarily in Church Slavonic. Some relevant posts are here, here, and here, with many links.