I created this blog to be a place where I could write down my notes, observations, and, for lack of a better word, "musings" about Cyril and Methodius. Sometimes I have merely pointed out interesting things I noticed from primary sources concerning them, and at other times I have engaged in outright conjecture, doing my best not to get too far ahead of myself. Always in my mind are the following questions.
1. Where did the inspiration for the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets come from? How did Cyril and Methodius' education, travels, personal beliefs and experiences inform the work of the mission they led?
2. How can we improve our understanding of Cyril and Methodius' lives in the absence of more detailed primary sources? How do their life stories as told by contemporary sources fit into the greater known history of the 9th century?
3. How did the "cult" of Ss. Cyril and Methodius form? How is it similar or dissimilar to other cults of Christian Saints, and how does it make the Slavic Christian tradition different? How can we compare Cyril and Methodius to other religious or intellectual figures?
There are more questions that I would like to answer but these are the main ones. Lately I have been looking at the third one a lot. It certainly seems unique in the Slavic tradition for there to be such an important saint who brought not only the Christian faith, but also literacy to his followers. Few others in Christian times did this, although there are examples.
Ulfilas, the creator of the Gothic alphabet and bible, is the historical figure whose life most resembles Cyril's. He established a community of Gothic Christian converts on the Danube in what is now Bulgaria. The Gothic Bible fell out of use as Trinitarian/Nicene Christianity replaced Arianism (Ulfilas' creed) in Germanic Europe from the 6th century to the 8th century. Like Cyril's followers when they made the Cyrillic alphabet, Ulfilas adapted Greek letters to suit a "barbarian" tongue, borrowing a small number of features from the indigenous writing system (Runes). Here is an example of text from a reconstructed Gothic Bible.
Mesrop Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet in 406 AD. As with the Slavonic, the Armenian alphabet helped preserve the independence of the Armenian Church, which was squeezed between the Eastern Roman Empire and Zoroastrian Persia. However, Mesrop Mashtots was not personally responsible for the conversion of Armenia to Christianity, which happened many decades earlier. His script, like Cyril's Glagolitsa, does not bear a close resemblance to other scripts used by Christians. He is thought by some to have also invented the Georgian and Caucasian Albanian alphabets. Below is an example of the Armenian script.
St. Stephen of Perm lived in the 14th century and carried out the same sort of activities among the Komi people as Cyril had among the Slavs. Like cyril, he was known for inventing a new alphabet, spreading Christianity, and destroying "holy birches" (remember, Cyril was said to have chopped down a sacred tree during his visit to the Fules tribe). The time in which Stephen lived was for Russia somewhat analogous to the 9th century for Byzantium - a period of growth and renewed contact with the rest of the world. His epithets also mirror St. Cyril's - "Enlightener" or "Apostle" of the Permians. Here is a computer font version of his Permic Alphabet.
These three are the best historical analogues to Cyril. They share the same two main accomplishments that Cyril is known for;
1. Inventing an alphabet
2. Spreading Christianity
Apart from them, no one I know of meets these two criteria, although there is little used Mormon phonetic alphabet called Deseret which at first glance looks more appropriate to the medieval Caucasus than the 19th century American West, although the modern type face gives it away.
There are some comparable mythical figures, like Cadmus (creator of the Greek alphabet from Phonecian), and Carmenta and Evander (who respectively adapted and brought the alphabet to Italy). Actually, Wikipedia has a convenient list of such people, real and mythical.
Here is my short list of Christian alphabet makers from Eastern European history, in Chronological order.
St. Ulfilas, Gothic Alphabet, 4th century
St. Mesrop, Armenian Alphabet, 4th-5th century
St. Cyril, Glagolitic Alphabet, 9th century
St. Kliment, Cyrillic Alphabet, 9th-10th century
St. Stephen, Permian Alphabet, 14th century
This makes a nice span of the Middle Ages.
In Western Europe during the Rennaissance there were numerous people who invented alphabets for cryptographic or magical/occult purposes, but these are really a different phenomenon altogether - these alphabets were not intended to be taught or used by real populations. In modern times, Christian missionaries once again invented new scripts for the purpose of proselytizing among the non-literate peoples they encountered through colonialism. Later, native intellectuals in developing nations started to invent new alphabets for languages that had not previously had a written standard. There were also new alphabets made for the purposes of language reform, often phonetic, and frequently derived from the Latin script (or, in the Soviet Union, Cyrillic). There were numerous types of shorthand invented during the modern period, and systems like sign language and braille.
