Patron Saints
Cyril and Methodius were brothers born of Macedonian nobility, who became priests in Constantinople. They evangelized to the Slavic peoples, translated the liturgy into Slavonic and made numerous converts. They are also credited with devising and spreading the Glagolitic alphabet, which was used for Slavonic manuscripts before the development of the Cyrillic, the alphabet derived from Glagolitic, that, with small modifications, is still used in a number of Slavic languages. Both brothers were canonized in The Eastern Orthodox Church as "equal-to-apostles". In the Roman Catholic Church they are also jointly revered as Apostles to the Slavs and their cult was further glorified in 1980 when Pope John Paul II declared them the patron saints of Europe.
Read more about this topic: SS. Cyril And Methodius In Lemont
Famous quotes containing the words patron and/or saints:
“In this country, the village should in some respects take the place of the nobleman of Europe. It should be the patron of the fine arts. It is rich enough. It wants only the magnanimity and refinement.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave, devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak adequately to his condition and experience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)