Legenda Christiani
The Dawn of Grace among the Slavs
Cyril, empowered by divine grace, brings the faith to the Slavs, invents their letters, translates Scripture, and establishes Slavonic worship that wins many souls.
Moravia, a region of the Slavs, is believed and known—by the testimony of ancient report—to have received the faith of Christ in the days of Augustine, the magnificent doctor, as they say. The Bulgars, or Bulgarians, however, are reported to have obtained that same grace long before. For indeed a certain Cyril, a Greek by birth, instructed in both Latin letters and the very learning of the Greeks, after the Bulgars had come to believe, set out in the name of the Holy Trinity and indivisible Unity to preach the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ to the aforementioned nation dwelling in Moravia. And with divine grace working alongside him, after he had won those people for Christ, he also discovered new letters or characters and translated both the Old and New Testaments, along with many other works, from the Greek or Latin language into the Slavonic tongue. He further established that the Masses and the other canonical hours should resound in church with public voice — a practice that is carried out to this day by many in the regions of the Slavs, especially among the Bulgarians — and many souls are won for Christ the Lord through this.
Cyril’s Humble Defense before Rome
Cyril is rebuked in Rome for using Slavonic in worship but defends himself with Scripture and humility, ultimately winning approval for the vernacular liturgy.
And when at one point Cyril had gone to Rome for the sake of prayer, he was rebuked by the supreme pontiff or by the other wise men and rulers of the church, who asked why he had dared to institute and sing the solemn rites of masses in the Slavonic language against the decrees of the canons. Since he was humbly trying to satisfy them and yet was not at all able to appease them, he seized a psalter and recited in their midst a verse of the psalmist, in which it is said: Let every spirit praise the Lord. And alluding to the verse itself, he said: 'If every spirit is to praise the Lord, why, fathers elect, do you forbid me to chant the celebration of masses in Slavonic, or to translate other things as well from the Latin or Greek tongue into their speech?' 'For if I had been able in any way to help that people, as in the case of the other nations, in the Latin or Greek language, I certainly would not have presumed to do this.' But seeing that the people would be hard-necked and entirely ignorant and unaware of the ways of God, I discovered this one device — the Almighty inspiring it in my heart — through which I also won over many of them. For which reason, forgive me, fathers and lords, since indeed the blessed Paul, apostle and teacher of the nations, says in his letter to the Corinthians: Do not forbid speaking in tongues. But they, hearing these things and admiring the faith of so great a man, by their own authority decreed and confirmed that in those regions the solemn rites of masses and the other canonical hours should be sung with hymns in the aforementioned language.
Methodius and the Harvest of Holiness
After Cyril’s death, Methodius continues the mission, gathers many for Christ, is appointed supreme pontiff, and survives a poisoning attempt by divine protection.
Blessed Cyril himself, however, remained there and, taking up the monastic habit, closed his last day, leaving behind in the aforementioned regions his brother, a man named Methodius, vigorous and adorned with every holiness. And after he had gathered many sheaves of Christ the Lord into the storehouse, he was appointed supreme pontiff by the very prince who then ruled and commanded those regions — like a magnificent emperor over the whole land — having under him seven bishops of that same holiness.1 But because from the very beginning of the world, after the first-formed man tasted the bitterness of the forbidden fruit, the enemy of the human race has never ceased to sow the seedbed of discord between humility and pride, between love and hatred, and between the remaining fragrances of the virtues and the stench of the vices — and because, grieving that his people, always enslaved to his services, are being withdrawn from him and gained for the true King, Christ the Lord — armed with every weapon of wickedness, he approaches new and ignorant henchmen to carry out such great treachery in war, hurling the poisoned seeds of discord among the very leaders and rulers themselves, and preparing the fiery weapons of pride and avarice to such an extent that Svatopluk, who was the nephew of the religious prince or king who had been the kind founder and ruler of all Christendom or of the faith, attacked his own uncle with plots, drove him from the kingdom, deprived him of his sight, and tried to take his life with poison.234 But having drunk that deadly potion, with divine grace protecting him, he suffers no harm.
The Tyranny of Svatopluk and the Land’s Lament
Svatopluk rejects Methodius’s counsel, falls into spiritual compromise, brings anathema upon his land, and serves as a warning to all who follow his path.
Then Zuentepulc, having seized power as a tyrant, was consumed by the arrogance of pride. He treated Bishop Methodius's rich, flowing preaching as though it meant nothing to him and didn't fully accept his most sacred warnings. As a result, he led his own people — that is, his common folk and his subjects — to serve partly Christ and partly the devil. Because of that, the district of that bishop of blessed memory, mentioned above, along with its inhabitants, was struck down by anathema. Its furrows and varied fruits were devastated by calamities, and it still mourns this to the present day. For she has been handed over to plunder and captivity and booty and scorn and desolation, and to the hissing of all who pass through her, because there is no fellowship of light with darkness, and no agreement of Christ with Belial.✦ Their examples, it seems to us, speak to us as well — we who try to walk in the same footsteps — because whoever sees his neighbor's house burning ought to be wary about his own.
Read the original Latin
Moravia, regio Sclavorum, antiquis temporibus fama memorante creditur et noscitur Christi fidem percepisse, Augustini, magnifici doctoris, ut aiunt, temporibus. Bulgri vel Bulgarii attamen longe ante eadem potiti referuntur gracia. Siquidem Quirillus quidam, nacione Grecus, tam Latinis quam ipsis Grecorum apicibus instructus, postquam Bulgri crediderant, aggressus est in nomine sancte Trinitatis et individue Unitatis eciam supradicte genti, Moravie degenti, fidem domini nostri Iesu Christi predicare. Et cooperante divina gracia, postquam illos Christo lucratus erat, eciam apices vel caracteres novas comperit et vetus novumque testamentum pluraque alia de Greco seu Latino sermone Sclavonicam in linguam transtulit. Missas preterea ceterasque canonicas horas in ecclesia publica voce resonare statuit, quod et usque hodie in partibus Sclavorum a pluribus agitur, maxime in Bulgariis, multeque ex hoc anime Christo domino acquiruntur.
Cumque quodam tempore memoratus Quirillus Romam causa oracionis adisset, a summo pontifice vel a reliquis sapientibus et rectoribus ecclesie redarguitur, ut quid contra statuta canonum ausus fuerit missarum sollempnia instituere canere Sclavonica lingua. Illo humiliter satisfaciente illis nec omnino mitigare eos valente, arrepto psalterio versum psalmigraphi in medium recitavit, quo dicitur: Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum. Et ipse versui alludens: Si, inquit, omnis spiritus laudet Dominum, cur me, patres electi, prohibetis missarum celebritatem modulare Sclavonice seu alia queque de Latino vel Greco verbo eorum vertere in sermonem? Si enim quivissem ullomodo subvenire populo illi, ut ceteris nacionibus, lingua Latina vel Greca, omnimodo id non presumpsissem. Sed cernens populum dure cervicis fore et omnino ydiotas et ignaros viarum Dei, solum hoc ingenium Omnipotente cordi meo inspirante comperi, per quod eciam multos illi acquisivi. Quapropter ignoscite mihi, patres et domini, siquidem et beatus Paulus apostolus, doctor gencium, in epistola ad Corinthios inquit: Loqui linguis nolite prohibere. At illi hec audientes et admirantes tanti viri fidem, auctoritate sua statuunt et firmant suprascripto sermone partibus in illis missarum sollempnia ceterasve canonicas horas ymnizari.
Ipse autem beatus Quirillus inibi persistens monachicumque habitum suscipiens, diem clausit extremum, relinquens supra memoratis in partibus fratrem suum nomine Metudium, virum strennuum omnique decoratum sanctitate. Qui et postquam multos Christi domini manipulos in horreo congregarat, ab ipso principe, qui partibus in illis tunc dominabatur et imperabat universe terre ceu magnificus imperator, statuitur summus pontifex, habens sub se septem eiusdem sanctitatis pontifices. Sed quia ab ipso mundi exordio, vetiti postquam sumpsit amaritudinem prothoplastus pomi, seminarium discordie inter humilitatem et superbiam, inter dileccionem et odium et reliqua virtutum odoramenta viciorumque fetorem humani generis inimicus usque ad presens fundere non desistit, ac dolens populum suis semper serviciis mancipatum sibi subtrahi veroque regi Christo domino acquiri, totis nequiciarum armis indutus, novos satellites et ignaros ad tantam perfidiam bellandi adit, discordiarum venenata semina inter ipsos primarios rectoresque iactitat, superbie ac avaricie ignita tela parat in tantum, ut Zuentepulc, qui erat nepos principis vel regis religiosi, qui institutor et rector tocius Christianitatis seu religionis benignus extiterat, ipsum avunculum suum insidiis appetitum regno pelleret, visu privaret vitamque eius veneno conaretur aufferre. Sed hausto ille pestifero potu, protegente se divina gracia, nil adversi patitur.
Dehinc Zuentepulc tyrannide suscepta, fastu arrogancie inflammatus, cum sibi militantibus sodalibus pontificis Metudii predicacionem mellifluam quasi respuit monitaque sacratissima non pleniter recepit, verum membra sua, scilicet plebem populumque suum, partim Christo, partim dyabolo servire exhibuit. Quapropter a pontifice beate memorie, supra notato pagus eius cum habitantibus incolis anathemate percussa cum sulcis suis et fructibus diversis cladibus attrita usque in hodiernum diem deflet. Data est enim in direpcionem et captivitatem et predam et derisum et desolacionem et in sibilum universe carni gradienti per eam, quoniam non est societas luci ad tenebras nec convencio Christi cum Belial. Quorum exempla nos quoque videntur respicere, qui eisdem passibus conamur incedere, quoniam qui domum vicini sui conspicit concremari, suspectus debet esse de sua.
Scripture echoes
- ↩2Cor.6.14-2Cor.6.15 — Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2Cor.6.15 — What harmony has Christ with Beliar? Or what share does a believer have with an unbeliever?
Notes
- 1 ↩manipulos (sheaves/bundles) is likely an allusion to harvest/gathering imagery (cf. John 4:35–38 or Matthew 9:37–38), but the source text does not mark it as a quotation; treated as narrative metaphor here.
- 2 ↩prothoplastus = 'the first-formed,' i.e., Adam. The term is rendered as 'the first-formed man' to preserve the theological resonance.
- 3 ↩seminarium discordie is rendered 'seedbed of discord' to capture the agricultural metaphor the Latin sustains alongside the fruit/sowing imagery.
- 4 ↩The passage's extended Adam/fall/discord imagery may echo Romans 5 or Genesis 3, but no direct quotation is marked; treated as theological narrative.
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