Skopje, 24 May 2024 (MIA) — The country is celebrating May 24, Ss. Cyril and Methodius Day, a public holiday in honor of the brothers credited with creating the Glagolitic alphabet that was used to translate the Bible into the Old Slavonic language and spread across Central and Eastern Europe. Their work was essential to creating the Cyrillic alphabet now in use throughout much of Eastern Europe, which earned them the title of Apostles to the Slavs and co-patron saints of Europe.

A state and church delegation led by President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is visiting Rome and the Vatican to worship at the tomb of St. Cyril at the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome as part of celebrating the holiday, after having an audience with Pope Francis.

To mark the holiday, a government delegation led by Minister of Environment and Physical Planning Kaja Shukova and the Additional Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mitko Bojmacaliev laid flowers at the monument of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in front of Sd. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.

Also, the Orthodox Theological Faculty and the Institute of National History held their first Ss. Cyril and Methodius scholarly conference.

In Ohrid, a concert titled "Artists give tribute to Ss. Cyril and Methodius" will be held Friday evening at St. Sophia church. A screening of the documentary "Cyrillics – the Macedonian Code" by Ilija Velev will follow. 

Ss. Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Salonica, of eminent and wealthy parents, Leo and Maria. The elder brother, Methodius, spent ten years as an officer among the Slavs in Macedonia, and thus learned the Slavic language. After that, Methodius went off to Olympus and gave himself to monastic asceticism, and Cyril (Constantine) later joined him there.

When the Khazarite king, Kagan, sought preachers of the Christian faith from Emperor Michael, the Emperor commanded that these two brothers be found and sent to the Khazars. They converted Kagan to the Christian faith and baptized him, together with a great number of his nobles and an even greater number of the people. After some time, they returned to Constantinople, where they compiled a Slavic alphabet of 38 letters and began to translate the service books from Greek into Slavonic.

At the invitation of Prince Rastislav, they went to Moravia, where, with great devotion, they spread and confirmed the Faith, made more copies of the books, brought them priests and taught the young. They went to Rome at the invitation of the Pope, and Cyril fell ill and died there, on Feb. 14, 869. Then Methodius returned to Moravia and labored at the confirming of the Faith among the Slavs until his death. After his death on April 6, 885, his disciples, the Five Followers, with St. Clement as bishop at the beginning, crossed the Danube and moved towards the south, to Macedonia, where, from Ohrid, they continued the work among the Slavs that Cyril and Methodius had begun in the north.