He was also responsible, along with the regent Bardas, for initiating a far-reaching educational program within the Empire which culminated in the establishment of the University of Magnaura, where Cyril was to teach.

The account of his life presented in the Latin "Legenda" claims that he learned the Khazar language while in Chersonesos, in Taurica (today Crimea).

That year Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia requested that Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch Photius send missionaries to evangelize his Slavic subjects.

Rastislav had become king with the support of the Frankish ruler Louis the German, though he subsequently sought to assert his independence from the Franks.

"[19] Rastislav is said to have expelled missionaries of the Roman Church and instead turned to Constantinople for ecclesiastical assistance and, presumably, a degree of political support.

In 863, they began the task of translating the Gospels and essential liturgical books into what is now known as Old Church Slavonic,[22] and travelled to Great Moravia to promote it.

[citation needed] The "Translatio" speaks only of a version of the Gospels by Cyril, and the "Vita Methodii" only of the "evangelium Slovenicum", though other liturgical selections may also have been translated.

The mission of Constantine and Methodius had great success among Slavs in part because they used the people's native language rather than Latin or Greek.

They would have represented the western, or Latin, branch of the Church, more particularly epitomizing the Carolingian Empire as founded by Charlemagne, and intent on linguistic and cultural uniformity.

They insisted on the use of the Latin liturgy, and they regarded Moravia and the Slavic peoples as part of their rightful mission field.

When friction developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a cause of dissension among Christians, decided to travel to Rome to see the Pope, and seek a solution that would avoid quarrelling between missionaries in the field.

Their evangelizing mission in Moravia had by this time become the focus of a dispute with Archbishop Adalwin of Salzburg (859–873) and Bishop Ermanrich of Passau (866-874).

This was partly due to their bringing with them the relics of Saint Clement; rivalry with Constantinople over the territory of the Slavs would have inclined Rome to value the brothers and their influence.

[24] Their project in Moravia found support from the new Pope Adrian II (867-872), who formally authorized the use of the new Slavic liturgy.

Upon Cyril´s death Methodius was given the title of Archbishop of Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia) with jurisdiction over all of Moravia and Pannonia, and authority to use the Slavonic Liturgy.

Rastislav had been taken captive by his nephew Svatopluk in 870, then delivered over to Carloman of Bavaria, and condemned in a diet held at Regensburg at the end of 870.

[30] Notwithstanding strong representations of the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, written in 871 to influence the pope, though not conceding this purpose, Rome declared emphatically for Methodius.

He sent a bishop, Paul of Ancona, to reinstate him and punish his enemies, after which both parties were ordered to appear in Rome with the legate.

[31] The papal will prevailed, and Methodius secured his freedom and his archiepiscopal authority over both Great Moravia and Pannonia, albeit without the use of Slavonic for Mass in the Catholic Church.

When Frankish clerics again ventured into the country, revealing a permissive Svatopluk at odds with his punctilious archbishop, this was made a cause of complaint against him at Rome, coupled with charges regarding the Filioque.

This time Pope John was convinced by the arguments that Methodius made in his defence and sent him back cleared of all charges, and with permission to use Slavonic.

The Carolingian bishop who succeeded him, Wiching, a Swabian, suppressed the Slavonic Liturgy and forced the followers of Methodius into exile.

Though Filioque could, by the 6th century, be heard in some Latin-speaking churches in the west, it was not to be until 1014 that Rome followed suit (see Nicene Creed).

His need for political support, visiting the Eastern emperor, inclined Goetz to accept the account in the Vita (xiii.).

Angelar soon died after an arrival, but Clement and Naum were afterwards sent to the Bulgarian capital of Pliska, where they were commissioned by Boris I to instruct the future clergy of the state in the Slavonic language.

That seems confirmed explicitly by the papal letter Industriae tuae (880) approving the use of Old Church Slavonic, which says that the alphabet was "invented by Constantine the Philosopher".

From the crowds lining the Roman streets during his funeral procession, there were calls for Cyril to be accorded saintly status.

The Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius established in 1846 was short-lived a pro-Ukrainian organization in the Russian Empire to preserve Ukrainian national identity.

Cyril and Methodius, a Catholic women's religious community of pontifical right dedicated to apostolic works of ecumenism, education, evangelization, and elder care.

[45] The Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, originally founded in 1909, is part of the national award system of Bulgaria.