Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Every nation must introduce the message of Salvation into its culture, “expressing it in its own language and alphabet”. That was what the 2Apostles to the Slaves”, Cyril and Methodius did, setting “a classic example of what today we call enculturation”. Benedict XVI dedicated his general audience today to the two “brothers, in blood and in faith”, “scholars of the Church of the East and of the West”. Over 30 thousand pilgrims were present in St Peter’s Square among them groups from Malaysia and Singapore, unusual additions to this papal appointment.
During the audience Benedict XVI also recalled the meeting of religious leaders from around the world, currently under way in Rome ahead of the G8 summit. “I am confident – he said in comments in English - that it will do much to draw the attention of world political leaders to the importance of religions within the social fabric of every society and to the grave duty to ensure that their deliberations and policies support and uphold the common good''.
Regarding the “Apsotles of the Slavs”, the younger of the two, Cyril was born in Thessalonica, modern day Salonica in 826. From his earliest youth, Benedict XVI remarked, he learnt the Slavic language and was sent to Constantinople at 14 years of age, where he was a companion of the Emperor Emanuel III. “He refused a brilliant marriage”, took holy orders and became the Patriarchate librarian. After attempting to find refuge in a convent, he became a teacher of the “sacred and profane sciences”. Encouraged by the example of one of his six older brothers, Michael born in 816, he decided to enter a monastery.
Their “mission” began when they were invited to the Crimea, where Cyril learnt Hebrew and found the tomb and relics of Pope Clement Ist, who had been exiled there. They were then invited to Moravia by Michael III, at the behest of Prince Rastislav, who said “we have no master who can teach us about our faith in our own language”. It was at this point that Cyril began translating the Gospel into Slav. Immediately it was clear to him that “there was a need for new graphic symbols more akin to the spoken language. Thus the alphabet, which is still used today, was born”. It was “a decisive moment in the development of Slavic culture in general”. He maintained that nations “could not fully understand the revelation until they had not heard of it in their own language or read about it in their own characters”.
This resulted in him being “loved by the people and regarded with jealousy by the Frankish missionaries”. In 867 they were called to Rome to explain themselves. On the road, in Venice they were involved in great discussions with “supporters of the tri-lingual heresy, for whom God could only be lawfully praised in Hebrew, Greek and Latin”. But pope Hadrian II welcomed them and went out to meet them in procession, given they were carrying the relics of Saint Clement. The Pope recognised the importance of their “ecclesial mission”, to an extent that he saw in the Slavic peoples a bridge between the two parts of the Empire. “He approved OF the two brothers mission welcoming them and granting the use of the Slavic language in the liturgy”. “The liturgy was celebrated in the Slavic language in Rome, in the basilica of Saint Peter, St Paul and St Andrew”.
Feeling that death was close at hand, Cyril retired to monastic life, probably in Saint Praxedes, where he died in 869”.
Methodius was ordained bishop and a year later he returned to the people of Moravia Pannonia, where he was however imprisoned by the Frankish missionaries. The persecution also targeted his disciples, some of whom were sold as slaves, but later released, in Venice. Thus in Bulgaria they could continue Methodius’ mission, and inwards to the ‘Land of the Rus’. Providence saw, commented the Pope, that “through persecution …the brothers work was saved”.
The Pope underlined the “passion” for “the value of language in the transmission of tradition” that distinguished the two brothers, whom John Paul II named “co-Patrons of Europe together with Saint Benedict”. Cyril would say : “I am the servant of the Word Incarnate, I place myself at the service of the word” and he “asked Christ to be able to speak Slavic through him”. “Listen all you Slavic peoples – he wrote – to the word that comes from God, the word that nourishes souls, the word that leads us to knowledge of God”.
Theirs, he concluded “ is a classic example of that which today is defined inculturisation: every nation must set the revelation in their own language and express the salvific truth with a language that is their won”. This “requires a very demanding task in translation, the specification of adequate terms, and the faithful presentation of the wealth of the revealed word”.
