Skopje, 24 May 2024 (MIA) — Caretaker Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi sent a public letter to the Macedonian Archbishop of Ohrid, HE Stefan, the Holy Synod of Bishops, to the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archdiocese clergy and all believers, extending his best wishes on May 24, Ss. Cyril and Methodius Day.

PM Xhaferi said the legacy of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, who created the first Slavic script, the Glagolitic, was of a fundamental significance for the MOC-OA as well as for contemporary Macedonian culture and for Europe.

"The fact that the first liturgical books were translated into the then Church Slavonic language paved the road for the development of Slavic literacy and Macedonian literacy, which spread on Macedonian soil under the auspices of the Ohrid Archdiocese and in the Ohrid Literary School," he wrote.

He noted that Ss. Cyril and Methodius were celebrated also because they shattered the trilingual dogma that Christianity could only be preached in three languages. They raised the Slavic language and culture to an equal level with the three others in Europe at the time, he said.

According to Xhaferi, their legacy was also to unify European nations, which is why they were declared saints by the Orthodox Church and patrons of Europe by the Roman Catholic Church. mr/