Editing Cyril and Methodius (section)

==Early career==
===Early life===
The two brothers were born in [[Thessalonica]], at that time in the Byzantine [[Thessalonica (theme)|province of the same name]] (today in [[Greece]]) – Cyril in 827–828, and Methodius in 815–820. According to the ''Vita Cyrilli'' ("The Life of Cyril"), Cyril was reputedly the youngest of seven brothers; he was born Constantine,<ref>''Cyril and Methodius'', [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] 2005</ref> but was given the name Cyril upon becoming a monk in Rome shortly before his death.<ref>''Vita Constantini slavica'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=RIdFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA246 Cap. 18: Denkschriften der kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften 19, Wien 1870, p. 246]</ref><ref>Chapter 18 of the Slavonic [http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fcurta/Cyril.html ''Life of Constantine''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215043926/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fcurta/Cyril.html |date=15 December 2012 }}, an English translation</ref><ref>English Translation of the 18th Chapter of the ''Vita Constantini'', [[Liturgy of the Hours]], Proper of Saints, 14 February</ref> Methodius was born Michael and was given the name Methodius upon becoming a monk in [[Polychron]] Monastery at [[Mysia]]n Olympus (present-day [[Uludağ]] in northwest [[Turkey]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/spirit/cyril.htm|title=SS.Cyril and Methodius|website=www.carpatho-rusyn.org|access-date=2 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317030046/http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/spirit/cyril.htm|archive-date=17 March 2016}}</ref> Their father was Leo, a ''[[droungarios]]'' of the Byzantine [[Theme (Byzantine district)|theme]] of Thessalonica, and their mother's name was Maria.

The exact ethnic origins of the brothers are unknown; there is controversy as to whether Cyril and Methodius were of [[Early Slavs|Slavic]]<ref>
* 1. Mortimer Chambers, Barbara Hanawalt, Theodore Rabb, Isser Woloch, Raymond Grew. ''The Western Experience with Powerweb''. Eighth Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education 2002. University of Michigan.  p. 214. {{ISBN|9780072565447}}
 ...Two Christian brothers of Slavic descent, Cyril and Methodius, set out in about 862 as missionaries from the Byzantine...

* 2. ''Balkan Studies'', Volume 22. Hidryma Meletōn Chersonēsou tou Haimou (Thessalonikē, Greece). The Institute, 1981. Original from	the University of Michigan. p. 381
 ...Being of Slavic descent, both of them spoke the old Slavic language fluently...

* 3. Loring M. Danforth. ''The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World''. Princeton University Press, 1995. p. 49 {{ISBN|9780691043562}}.
 ...In the ninth century two brothers Cyril and Methodius, Macedonian educators of Slavic origin from Solun, brought literacy and Christianity to the Slavs...

* 4. Ihor Ševčenko. ''Byzantium and the Slavs: In Letters and Culture'''. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1991. p. 481. {{ISBN|9780916458126}}
 ...63-68 (Cyril and Methodius were Slavs)...There remains that argument for Cyril's and Methodius' Slavic origin which has to do with the Slavic translation of the Gospels and...

* 5. Roland Herbert Bainton. ''Christianity: An American Heritage Book Series''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. p. 156. {{ISBN|9780618056873}}
 ...Two missionaries of Slavic origin, Cyril (baptized Constantine) and Methodius, adapted the Greek alphabet and translated both the Bible and the liturgy into the Slavic tongue...

* 6. John Shea. ''Macedonia and Greece: The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation''. McFarland, 1997. p. 56 . {{ISBN|9780786437672}}
 ...Byzantine emperor Michael, on the request of the Moravian prince Ratislav, decided to send Slav priests as educators, he chose the Salonika brothers Cyril and Methodius...

* 7. ''UNESCO Features: A Fortnightly Press Service''. UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1984. University of Michigan
 ...They may have been of wholly Slavic descent or of mixed Greco-Slav origin...

* 8. ''The Pakistan Review'', Volume 19. Ferozsons Limited, 1971. University of California. p. 41
 ...century in Salonika, then one of the largest towns in the Byzantine Empire. The brothers were of Slav origin...

* 9. ''Balkania'', Volume 7. Balkania Publishing Company, 1973. Indiana University. p. 10
 ...Cyril and Methodius not only lived among Slavs. ...of Slavonic, which they not only spoke and understood, but in which they also wrote—translated and composed—and for which they invented an alphabet, is proof of their Slav origin...

* 10.  Bryce Dale Lyon, Herbert Harvey Rowen, Theodore S. Hamerow. ''A History of the Western World'', Volume 1. Rand McNally College Pub. Co., 1974. Northwestern University. p. 239
 ...brothers of Slavic origin, Cyril and Methodius, who, after being ordained at Constantinople, preached the Gospel to the Slavs...

* 11. Roland Herbert Bainton. The history of Christianity. Nelson, 1964. p. 169
 ...Two missionaries of Slavic origin, Cyril (baptized Constantine) and Methodius, adapted the Greek alphabet and translated both the Bible and the liturgy into the Slavic tongue...

* 12. Carl Waldman, Catherine Mason. ''Encyclopedia of European Peoples: Facts on File library of world history''. Infobase Publishing, 2006. p. 752. {{ISBN|9781438129181}}
 ...There is disagreement as to whether Cyril and his brother Methodius were Greek or Slavic, but they knew the Slavic dialect spoken in Macedonia...

* 13. Frank Andrews. ''Ancient Slavs'''. Worzalla Publishing Company, 1976. University of Wisconsin - Madison. p. 163.
 ...Cyril and Methodius derived from a rich family of Salonica, perhaps of Slavic origin, but Grecized in those times. Methodius (815–885)...

* 14. Johann Heinrich Kurtz, John Macpherson. ''Church History''. Hodder and Stoughton, 1891. University of California. p. 431
 ...Born at Thessalonica, and so probably of Slavic descent, at least acquainted with the language of the Slavs,...

* 15. William Leslie King. ''Investment and Achievement: A Study in Christian Progress''. Jennings and Graham, 1913. Columbia University.
 ...This man and his brother Cyril became the Methodius and Cyril apostles of the Slavic people. These two brothers seemed to have been raised up for such a mission. They were probably of Slavic descent...</ref> or [[Greeks|Greek]]<ref>* {{Cite book | last1 = Banac | first1 = Ivo | title = The National Question in Yugoslavia | year = June 9, 2015 | publisher = Cornell University Press | location = New York | isbn = 9781501701931 | page=61|quote=Matters were complicated when Cyril and Methodius, two Greek brothers from Salonika, undertook to apply the Slavic idioms}}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Hurst | first1 = John Fletcher | title = Short History of the Christian Church | year = 1892 | publisher = Harper and brothers | location = New York | isbn = | page =141|quote=Cyril and Methodius, two Greek monks, were the first to introduce the gospel among the Bulgarians.}}
* ''Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. 2001–05, s.v. "Cyril and Methodius, Saints" "Greek missionaries, brothers, called Apostles to the Slavs and fathers of Slavonic literature."
* Encyclopædia Britannica, ''Major alphabets of the world, Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets'', 2008, O.Ed. "The two early Slavic alphabets, the Cyrillic and the Glagolitic, were invented by St. Cyril, or Constantine (c. 827–869), and St. Methodius (c. 825–884). These men were Greeks from Thessalonica who became apostles to the southern Slavs, whom they converted to Christianity.
*''Encyclopedia of World Cultures'', David H. Levinson, 1991, p.239, s.v., "Social Science"
* Eric M. Meyers, ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East'', p.151, 1997
* Lunt, ''Slavic Review'', June 1964, p. 216; Roman Jakobson, ''Crucial problems of Cyrillo-Methodian Studies''; Leonid Ivan Strakhovsky, ''A Handbook of Slavic Studies'', p.98
* V.Bogdanovich, ''History of the ancient Serbian literature'', Belgrade, 1980, p.119
* {{Cite book  | last1 = Hastings | first1 = Adrian | title = The construction of nationhood: ethnicity, religion, and nationalism | year = 1997 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge  | isbn = 0-521-62544-0 | page =126|quote=The activity of the brothers Constantine (later renamed Cyril) and Methodius, aristocratic Greek priests who were sent from Constantinople. }}
* {{Cite book  |last= Fletcher |first= R. A. |title= The barbarian conversion: from paganism to Christianity |year= 1999 |publisher= University of California Press |location= Berkeley, California |isbn=0-520-21859-0 |page= 327}}
* {{Cite book  |last1= Cizevskij |first1= Dmitrij |author2-link= Serge Aleksandr Zenkovsky |last2= Zenkovsky |first2 = Serge A. |last3= Porter |first3= Richard E. |title= Comparative History of Slavic Literatures |year= 1971 |publisher= Vanderbilt University Press |isbn=0-8265-1371-9 |page= vi |quote=Two Greek brothers from Salonika, Constantine who later became a monk and took the name Cyril and Methodius.}}
* {{Cite book |title= The illustrated guide to the Bible |year= 1998 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York |isbn=0-19-521462-5 |page= 14 |quote=In Eastern Europe, the first translations of the Bible into the Slavonic languages were made by the Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius in the 860s }}
* {{Cite book  |last= Smalley |first= William Allen |title= Translation as mission: Bible translation in the modern missionary movement |year= 1991 |publisher= Mercer |location = Macon, Ga.  | isbn = 978-0-86554-389-8 | page =25|quote=The most important instance where translation and the beginning church did coincide closely was in Slavonic under the brothers Cyril and Methodius, with the Bible completed by A.D. 880. This was a missionary translation but unusual again (from a modern point of view) because not a translation into the dialect spoken where the missionaries were. The brothers were Greeks who had been brought up in Macedonia.  }}</ref> origin, or both.<ref>
* 1. Philip Lief Group. ''Saintly Support: A Prayer For Every Problem''. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2003. p. 37. {{ISBN|9780740733369}}
 ...Cyril was born of Greek nobility connected with the senate of Thessalonica, although his mother may have been of Slavic descent...

* 2. ''UNESCO Features: A Fortnightly Press Service''. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization., 1984. University of Michigan
 ...They may have been of wholly Slavic descent or of mixed Greco-Slav origin...
</ref> The two brothers lost their father when Cyril was fourteen, and the powerful minister [[Theoktistos]], who was ''[[logothetes tou dromou]]'', one of the chief ministers of the Empire, became their protector. 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. Cyril was ordained as [[Priesthood (Catholic Church)|priest]] some time after his education, while his brother Methodius remained a [[deacon]] until 867/868.<ref>{{cite book|author=Raymond Davis|title=The Lives of the Ninth-century Popes (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of Ten Popes from A.D. 817-891|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q7EuWhDYxM4C&pg=PA254|year=1995|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-0-85323-479-1|page=254}}</ref>

===Mission to the Khazars===
About the year 860, [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[Michael III]] and the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]] [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]] (a professor of Cyril's at the university and his guiding light in earlier years), sent Cyril on a missionary expedition to the [[Khazars]] who had requested a scholar be sent to them who could converse with both Jews and Saracens.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090617.html |title=Pope Benedict XVI. "Saints Cyril and Methodius", General Audience 17 June 2009, Libreria Editrice Vaticana |publisher=W2.vatican.va |access-date=2019-01-29}}</ref> It has been claimed that Methodius accompanied Cyril on the mission to the Khazars, but this may be a later invention. The account of his life presented in the [[Latin language|Latin]] ''"Legenda"'' claims that he learned the Khazar language while in [[Chersonesos Taurica|Chersonesos]], in [[Taurica]] (today [[Crimea]]).

After his return to Constantinople, Cyril assumed the role of professor of [[philosophy]] at the university. His brother had by this time become a significant figure in Byzantine political and administrative affairs, and an abbot of his monastery.