By Fr. Ilias Makos
Day of celebration, on Saturday, May 11, of the fervent missionaries Cyril and Methodius from Thessalonica, coinciding with an event that must not go unnoticed.
It has been 1155 years, since the two Apostles transmitted with zeal Christianity and culture to the Slavs.
Their missionary work was not limited. It was very extensive. It was not just a stop. It brought divergence and rearrangement.
Along with religion, the Gospel and the temples, they spread the idea of the state, a new law that governed social relations instead of deregulate them, philology and education that gave priority to man, and the cyrillic script.
How did they achieve their purpose to radically transform the form of the great Slavic country within only four years, since the conditions were not easy at all, since they were confronted with ignorance and superstition?
They built a culture that aimed, on the one hand, on the rebirth of souls and on the other hand on the cultivation of the arts and literature. Their pillar was the power of their faith, they were qualified with great education and they worked with a plan.
All of this, however, had a focus: They knew well that man cannot be man without Christ, or far from Him.
The various humanitarian missions, weakened and alienated by the elements of Orthodoxy, remain on the surface, do not penetrate in depth.
They “polish” man, they do not change him, or renew him. Only Christ forms and transforms.
Cyril and Methodius were based precisely on that, and they succeeded the impossible: Their mission to the Slavs was an exceptional and unique event in history, concerning its result.