Sfinții Metodiu și Chiril și creștinătatea slavă
Saints Methodius and Cyril and Slavic Christianity

Summary/Abstract: It is the merit of the two Saints, Methodius and Cyril, to have introduced Slavonic peoples into the European cultural space, nourished throughout the centuries by the Greek-Roman thinking and then by the Gospel of Christ. Given the European scope of their mission, Pope John Paul II rightly termed them ,,totius Europae apud Deum caelestes compatronos”. The two brothers created an alphabet and a literary language through which they promptly integrated Slavonic language into the Byzantine culture, via the sacred terminology. The 9th and the 10th century witnessed the Christianization of the greatest migratory people, the Slavs who at the time amounted to one third of the total population of Europe. While Saints Methodius and Cyril were not the first ,,Apostles” to all the Slavs, they were certainly true ,,Apostles” to a part of them. However they were the ones who paved the way for the integration of all Slavs into the great European culture, which Christianity stood for. By receiving the mission of the two saints, the Slavs received not only a religion (which in itself is a major achievement), but they also opted for the Christian culture expressed through the spoken and written word, in their own language.

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