Cirilo e Metodio

Cirilo e Metodio (en grego: Κύριλλος καὶ Μεθόδιος, en antigo eslavo eclesiástico: Кѷриллъ и Меѳодїи), nados no século IX en Tesalónica, foron dous irmáns grego bizantinos do século IX. Foron os principais misioneiros cristiáns entre os pobos eslavos da Gran Moravia e Pannonia, introducindo o cristianismo ortodoxo e escribindo aos ata entón analfabetos e pagáns eslavos que estaban emigrando cara a Macedonia e noutros lugares dos Balcáns.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} Pola súa obra influíron no desenvolvemento cultural de todos os eslavos, polo que recibiron o título de "Apóstolos dos eslavos". Débeselle a creación do alfabeto glagolítico, o primeiro alfabeto que se usou para transcribir o antigo eslavo eclesiástico.^[9] Ámbolos dous irmáns son venerados como santos da Igrexa ortodoxa. En 1880, o papa León XIII introduciu a súa festa no calendario da Igrexa católica romana. En 1980, o papa Xoán Paulo II declarounos copatróns de Europa, canda Bieito de Nursia.^[10]

1. ↑ Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001–05, s.v.
2. ↑ The Columbia Encyclopaedia, Sixth Edition. 2001–05, O.
3. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica, Major alphabets of the world, Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets, 2008, O.
4. ↑ Hastings, Adrian (1997). The construction of nationhood: ethnicity, religion, and nationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-521-62544-0. The activity of the brothers Constantine (later renamed Cyril) and Methodius, aristocratic Greek priests who were sent from Constantinople. 
5. ↑ Fletcher, R. A. (1999). The barbarian conversion: from paganism to Christianity. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 327. ISBN 0-520-21859-0. 
6. ↑ Cizevskij, Dmitrij; Zenkovsky, Serge A.; Porter, Richard E. Comparative History of Slavic Literatures. Vanderbilt University Press. pp. vi. ISBN 0-8265-1371-9. Two Greek brothers from Salonika, Constantine who later became a monk and took the name Cyril and Methodius. 
7. ↑ The illustrated guide to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998. p. 14. ISBN 0-19-521462-5. In Eastern Europe, the first translations of the Bible into the Slavoruic languages were made by the Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius in the 860s 
8. ↑ Smalley, William Allen (1991). Translation as mission: Bible translation in the modern missionary movement. Macon, Ga.: Mercer. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-86554-389-8. The most important instance where translation and the beginning church did coincide closely was in Slavonic under the brothers Cyril and Methodius, with the Bible completed by A.D. 880. This was a missionary translation but unusual again (from a modern point of view) because not a translation into the dialect spoken where the missionaries were. The brothers were Greeks who had been brought up in Macedonia. 
9. ↑ Liturgy of the Hours, Volume III, 14 de febreiro.
10. ↑ "Egregiae Virtutis". Consultado o 26 de abril de 2009.