| 斯拉夫文字的发明（英） |
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| 2007-06-22 21:52 文章来源：驻保经商参处 |
| 文章类型：转载 内容分类：新闻 |
The brothers Constantine (Cyril) (827-869) and Methodius (826-885), Byzantine missionaries born in Salonica, devised the Slavonic alphabet in AD 855 or 862-863 (this was actually the Glagolitic, an uncial cursive of an original design; the Cyrillic, on which the modern Slav nations' alphabets are based, came 40-50 years later, c. AD 902-912 and, like the Roman script, was based on the Greek alphabet). Using this new script, Cyril and Methodius and their disciples translated into Slavonic the essential liturgical books: the Gospel, Epistles, Psalter and collected services.
The Slav alphabet was adopted in Bulgaria in AD 886 as a vehicle of enforcing Old Bulgarian as the single national and liturgical language. From Bulgaria, the script spread to other Slav countries and is now used by some 250 million people worldwide in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia.
With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January 1, 2007, Cyrillic also became the third official alphabet of the EU. The two brothers were summoned to Rome by Pope Hadrian II, who approved the Slavonic liturgical books and ordered them to be solemnly placed on the altar in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Cyril died during that journey on February 14, 869 and was buried at San Clemente. Sts Cyril and Methodius are venerated as Equal-to-the-Apostles, First Teachers and Enlighteners of the Slavs by both the Eastern and the Western church. By his Apostolic Letter "Industriae Tuae," issued in AD June 880, Pope John VIII approved the Slavic letters devised by Constantine the Philosopher (St. Cyril) as means by which God may be truly praised and ordained that "it is not in any way against the true faith and teaching to chant the Liturgy, to read the Holy Gospel and other Sacred Lessons, or to chant canonical (liturgical) services in the Slavonic language, provided they are well translated and interpreted."
On December 31, 1980, by his Apostolic Letter "Egregiae Virtutis," Pope John Paul II proclaimed Sts Cyril and Methodius Heavenly Co-Patrons of Europe together with St Benedict (who had been proclaimed the Patron Saint of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964). In Commemoration of the Eleventh Centenary of the Evangelizing Work of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Pope John Paul II also issued an express encyclical, entitled "Slavorum Apostoli," on June 2, 1985.
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