Names of the creators of the Church Slavonic alphabet. Slavic alphabet

The alphabet of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, just like any other alphabet, was a system of certain signs, to which a certain sound was assigned. The Slavic alphabet was formed in the territory where peoples lived Ancient Rus' many centuries ago.

Events of the historical past

The year 862 went down in history as the year when the first official steps were taken to accept Christianity in Rus'. Prince Vsevolod sent ambassadors to the Byzantine Emperor Michael, who were supposed to convey his request that the emperor send preachers of the Christian faith to Great Moravia. The need for preachers arose due to the fact that people themselves could not penetrate the essence of Christian teaching, because the Holy Scriptures were only in Latin.

In response to this request, two brothers were sent to the Russian lands: Cyril and Methodius. The first of them received the name Cyril a little later, when he took monastic vows. This choice was carefully thought out. The brothers were born in Thessaloniki into the family of a military leader. Greek version - Thessaloniki. Their level of education was very high for that time. Constantine (Kirill) was trained and brought up at the court of Emperor Michael III. He could speak several languages:

• Greek,
• Arabic,
• Slavic,
• Jewish.

For his ability to initiate others into the secrets of philosophy, he received the nickname Constantine the Philosopher.

Methodius began his career with military service and tried himself as a governor of one of the regions that was inhabited by the Slavs. In 860 they made a trip to the Khazars, their goal was to spread the Christian faith and reach some agreements with this people.

History of written characters

Konstantin had to create written signs with the active help of his brother. After all, the Holy Scriptures were only in Latin. To convey this knowledge to a large number of people, a written version of the Holy Books in the Slavic language was simply necessary. As a result of their painstaking work, the Slavic alphabet appeared in 863.

Two variants of the alphabet: Glagolitic and Cyrillic are ambiguous. Researchers argue about which of these two options belongs directly to Kirill, and which appeared later.

After the creation of the writing system, the brothers worked on translating the Bible into the Slavic language. The significance of this alphabet is enormous. The people were able not only to speak their own language. But also to write and to form the literary basis of the language. Some of the words of that time have reached our time and function in Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian languages.

Symbols-words

The letters of the ancient alphabet had names that coincided with the words. The word “alphabet” itself comes from the first letters of the alphabet: “az” and “buki”. They represented the modern letters "A" and "B".

The first written symbols in Slavic lands were scratched on the walls of churches in Pereslavl in the form of pictures. This was in the 9th century. In the 11th century, this alphabet appeared in Kyiv, in the St. Sophia Cathedral, where the signs were interpreted and written translations were made.

A new stage in the formation of the alphabet is associated with the advent of printing. The year 1574 brought the first alphabet to Russian lands, which was printed. It was called “Old Slavonic alphabet”. The name of the person who released it has gone down in history - Ivan Fedorov.

The connection between the emergence of writing and the spread of Christianity

The Old Church Slavonic alphabet was more than a simple set of symbols. Her appearance made it possible a large number people to get acquainted with the Christian faith, penetrate into its essence, and give their hearts to it. All scientists agree that without the advent of writing, Christianity would not have appeared on Russian lands so quickly. There were 125 years between the creation of letters and the adoption of Christianity, during which there was a huge leap in the self-awareness of the people. From ancient beliefs and customs, people came to faith in One God. It was the Holy Books that were distributed throughout the territory of Rus', and the ability to read them, that became the basis for the spread of Christian knowledge.

863 is the year the alphabet was created, 988 is the date of the adoption of Christianity in Rus'. This year, Prince Vladimir announced that a new faith was being introduced in the principality and the fight against all manifestations of polytheism began.

The Mystery of Written Symbols

Some scientists believe that the symbols of the Slavic alphabet are secret signs in which religious and philosophical knowledge is encrypted. Together they represent a complex system based on clear logic and mathematical connections. There is an opinion that all the letters in this alphabet are a holistic, inextricable system, that the alphabet was created as a system, and not as individual elements and signs.

The first such signs were something between numbers and letters. The Old Church Slavonic alphabet was based on the Greek uncial writing system. The Slavic Cyrillic alphabet consisted of 43 letters. The brothers took 24 letters from the Greek unical, and came up with the remaining 19 themselves. The need to invent new sounds arose due to the fact that the Slavic language contained sounds that were not characteristic of Greek pronunciation. Accordingly, there were no such letters. Konstantin either took these symbols from other systems or invented them himself.

"Higher" and "lower" part

The entire system can be divided into two distinct parts. Conventionally, they received the names “higher” and “lower”. The first part includes the letters from “a” to “f” (“az” - “fet”). Each letter is a symbol-word. This name was completely focused on people, because these words were clear to everyone. The lower part went from “sha” to the letter “Izhitsa”. These symbols were left without digital correspondence and were filled with negative connotations. “To gain insight into the secret writing of these symbols, they need to be carefully studied and all the nuances analyzed. After all, in each of them lives the meaning laid down by the creator.”

Researchers also find the meaning of the triad in these symbols. A person, comprehending this knowledge, must achieve more high level spiritual perfection. Thus, the alphabet is the creation of Cyril and Methodius, leading to the self-improvement of people.

In the 10th century, Bulgaria became the center of distribution Slavic writing and books. It is from here that Slavic literacy and Slavic books come to the Russian land. The oldest Slavic written monuments that have survived to this day were written in not one, but two varieties of Slavic writing. These are two alphabets that existed simultaneously: CYRILLIC(named Kirill) and GLAGOLITIC(from the word “verb”, i.e. “to speak”).

The question of what kind of alphabet Cyril and Methodius created has occupied scientists for a very long time, but they have not come to a consensus. There are two main hypotheses. According to the first, Cyril and Methodius created the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Glagolitic alphabet arose in Moravia after the death of Methodius during the period of persecution. Methodius's disciples came up with a new alphabet, which became the Glagolitic alphabet. It was created on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet by changing the spelling of the letters in order to continue the work of spreading the Slavic letter.

Proponents of the second hypothesis believe that Cyril and Methodius were the authors of the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet appeared in Bulgaria as a result of the activities of their students.

The question of the relationship between alphabets is complicated by the fact that not a single source telling about the activities of the Thessaloniki brothers contains examples of the writing system that they developed. The first inscriptions in Cyrillic and Glagolitic that have reached us date back to the same time - the turn of the 9th-10th centuries.

An analysis of the language of the oldest Slavic written monuments showed that the first Slavic alphabet was created for the Old Church Slavonic language. Old Church Slavonic is not the spoken language of the 9th century Slavs, but a language specifically created for translating Christian literature and creating their own Slavic religious works. It was different from the living spoken language of the time, but was understandable to everyone who spoke Slavic languages.

The Old Church Slavonic language was created on the basis of the dialects of the southern group of Slavic languages, then it began to spread to the territory of the Western Slavs, and by the end of the 10th century the Old Church Slavonic language also spread to the East Slavic territory. The language spoken by the Eastern Slavs at that time is usually called Old Russian. After the baptism of Rus', two languages ​​already “live” on its territory: the living spoken language of the Eastern Slavs - Old Russian and the literary written language - Old Church Slavonic.

What were the first Slavic alphabet? Cyrillic and Glagolitic are very similar: they have almost the same number of letters - 43 in Cyrillic and 40 in Glagolitic, which are named the same and are located in the same alphabet. But the style (image) of the letters is different.

Glagolitic letters are characterized by many curls, loops and other complex elements. Only those letters that were specially created to convey the special sounds of the Slavic language are close in writing form to the Cyrillic alphabet. The Glagolitic alphabet was used by the Slavs in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Croatia and Dalmatia it existed until the 17th century. But the simpler Cyrillic alphabet replaced the Glagolitic alphabet in the east and south, and in the west it was replaced by the Latin alphabet.

The Cyrillic letters are based on several sources. First, the Greek alphabet (Greek was official language Byzantine Empire). Greek writing in Byzantium had two forms: the strict and geometrically correct uncial and the faster cursive. The Cyrillic alphabet was based on the uncial, from which 26 letters were borrowed. Oh, how complicated this alphabet was, if you compare it with our modern alphabet!

The letter “N” (our) was written as “N”, and the letter “I” (like) as “N”. And several identical sounds were denoted by two different letters. So the sound “Z” was conveyed by the letters “Earth” and “Zelo”, the sound “I” - the letters “Izhe” “I”, the sound “O” - “He” “Omega”, the two letters “Fert” and “Fita” gave sound "F". There were letters to indicate two sounds at once: the letters “Xi” and “Psi” meant a combination of the sounds “KS” and “PS”. And another letter could give different sounds: for example, “Izhitsa” meant in some cases “B”, in others it conveyed the sound “I”. The four letters for the Cyrillic alphabet were created from the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These letters denoted hissing sounds, which did not exist in the Greek language. These are the letters “Worm”, “Tsy”, “Sha” and “Sha” for the sounds “Ch, Ts, Sh, Shch”. Finally, several letters were created individually - “Buki”, “Zhivete”, “Er”, “Ery”, “Er”, “Yat”, “Yus small” and “Yus big”. The table shows that each Cyrillic letter had its own name, some of them formed interesting semantic series. The students memorized the alphabet like this: Az Buki Vedi - I know the letters, i.e. I know the Verb Good Is; How People Think, etc.

Many modern Slavic alphabets were created on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, but the Glagolitic alphabet was gradually supplanted and became a “dead” alphabet, from which none of them “grew” modern systems letters.

The alphabet is also a set of symbols used to convey writing V specific language, otherwise - the alphabet; and a book for mastering the alphabet and the basics of written literacy.
Wikimedia Commons()

Therefore, answering the question of what the first Slavic alphabet was called, we should talk about both the symbolic corpus and the book.

Cyrillic or Glagolitic?

Traditionally, the first Slavic alphabet is called the Cyrillic alphabet. We still use it to this day. Also official version says that the creators of the first Slavic alphabet were Methodius and Constantine (Kirill) Philosopher - Christian preachers from Greek city Thessaloniki.

In 863, they allegedly streamlined the Old Church Slavonic writing and, using a new alphabet - the Cyrillic alphabet (named Kirill) - began to translate Greek religious texts into Slavic (Old Bulgarian). This activity led to a significant spread of Orthodoxy.

For a long time believed that the brothers created the alphabet, which became the basis for 108 modern languages- Russian, Montenegrin, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, a number of Caucasian, Turkic, Ural and others. However, now most scientists consider the Cyrillic alphabet to be a later formation, and its predecessor is the Glagolitic alphabet.

It was the Glagolitic alphabet that was developed by Kirill the Philosopher to translate religious texts (“books without which Divine services are not performed”) into Old Church Slavonic. There is several evidence for this:

- Glagolitic inscription from 893 ( exact date) in the church of Preslavl;

Wikimedia Commons / Lapot ()
- palimpsests - parchment manuscripts on which the old - Glagolitic - text has been scraped off, and the new one is written in Cyrillic: parchments were very expensive, therefore, for the sake of economy, more important things were written down, scraping off records that had lost their relevance;

— absence of palimpsests, on which the Cyrillic alphabet is the first layer;

- the presence of negative references to the Glagolitic alphabet in the context of the need to replace it with “Slavic Pimen”, in which there is “more holiness and honor”, ​​for example, in the essay of Chernorizets Khrabra “On Letters”.

In Old Russian writing, as a later Glagolitic alphabet, it was used extremely rarely, usually as secret writing or individual inclusions in texts in Cyrillic.

Who is the author of the Cyrillic alphabet?

According to scientists, the creator of the Cyrillic alphabet is Kliment of Ohrid, a student of Cyril the Philosopher, a resident of the Bulgarian city of Ohrid (now Macedonia). In 893, a national council in Great Preslav unanimously voted to elect Clement “bishop of the Slavic language” - this is further evidence in favor of his authorship of the Cyrillic alphabet.

The first printed alphabet

The first printed alphabets, or primers, appeared in the 16th century. In 1574, the first printer Ivan Fedorov published his “ABC” in Lvov, the addressee of the book was “beloved honest Christian Russian people.”

The circulation, together with the second building - the Ostrog building, amounted to about 2,000 copies. The second edition contained not only letters (symbols), but also exercises for practicing reading.

Only three books from Fedorov’s first ABCs have survived. One “ABC” of 1574 belonged to S. P. Diaghilev (1872 – 1929) - a Russian theater figure, organizer of the Parisian “Russian Seasons” and the “Russian Diaghilev Ballet”. When the owner died, the relic became the property of the Harvard University Library.

Two other ABCs from 1578 are kept in the Copenhagen Royal Library and the State Library in Gotha in Germany.

“ABC” by Ivan Fedorov is built on the Roman and Greek letter-subjunctive system of education. First, it contains an alphabet of 46 letters. Next is the reverse alphabet (from “Izhitsa” to “az”), the alphabet in eight vertical columns. Behind it are syllables of two letters, syllables of three letters(possible combinations of all vowels with all consonants).

This arrangement of material in the book reflects a system of teaching literacy, in which images and names of symbols were first firmly memorized, then syllables, and only after that the student began reading texts taken from the Bible.

The texts were not just religious, but always instructive and educational. We must pay tribute to the pioneer printer; the teachings were addressed not only to children, but also to parents, for example: do not irritate your children. Perhaps this to some extent determined the general direction of Russian literature to this day.

Wikimedia Commons/Anntinomy()
In 1596, the first primer “Science of Reading...” by Lavrentiy Zizaniya was published in Vilna. In 1634, Vasily Burtsov published the Primer of the Slovenian Language in Moscow. Since then, the printing of alphabet books has become widespread.

Cyril and Methodius are Slavic first teachers, great preachers of Christianity, canonized not only by the Orthodox, but also by the Catholic Church.

The life and work of Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius is reproduced in sufficient detail on the basis of various documentary and chronicle sources.

Cyril (826-869) received this name when he was tonsured into the schema 50 days before his death in Rome; he lived his whole life with the name Constantine (Constantine the Philosopher). Methodius (814-885) - the monastic name of the saint, his secular name is unknown, presumably his name was Michael.

Cyril and Methodius are siblings. They were born in the city of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki) in Macedonia (now a territory of Greece). Since childhood, they have mastered the Old Church Slavonic language - Old Bulgarian. From the words of Emperor Michael III, “Thessalonians” - everyone speaks purely Slavic.

Both brothers lived a mainly spiritual life, striving to embody their beliefs and ideas, attaching no importance to sensual joys, wealth, career, or fame. The brothers never had wives or children, they wandered all their lives, never creating a home or permanent shelter for themselves, and even died in a foreign land.

Both brothers went through life, actively changing it in accordance with their views and beliefs. But all that remained as traces of their deeds were the fruitful changes they introduced into people’s life, and vague stories of lives, traditions, and legends.

The brothers were born into the family of Leo the Drungaria, a mid-ranking Byzantine military commander from the city of Thessalonica. There were seven sons in the family, with Methodius the eldest and Cyril the youngest.

According to one version, they came from a pious Slavic family who lived in the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki. From a large number of historical sources, mainly from " Brief Life Clement of Ohrid” it is known that Cyril and Methodius were Bulgarians. Since in the 9th century the First Bulgarian kingdom was a multinational state, it is not entirely possible to determine exactly whether they were Slavs or Proto-Bulgarians or even had other roots. The Bulgarian kingdom consisted mainly of the ancient Bulgarians (Turks) and Slavs, who were already forming a new ethnos - the Slavic Bulgarians, who retained the old name of the ethnos, but were already a Slavic-Turkic people. According to another version, Cyril and Methodius were Greek origin. There is an alternative theory of the ethnic origin of Cyril and Methodius, according to which they were not Slavs, but Bulgars (proto-Bulgarians). This theory also refers to the assumptions of historians that the brothers created the so-called. Glagolitic - an alphabet more similar to ancient Bulgarian than to Slavic.

Little is known about the first years of Methodius' life. There was probably nothing outstanding in the life of Methodius until it crossed with his life younger brother. Methodius entered early military service and was soon appointed governor of one of the Slavic-Bulgarian regions subject to Byzantium. Methodius spent about ten years in this position. Then he left the military-administrative service, which was alien to him, and retired to a monastery. In the 860s, having renounced the rank of archbishop, he became abbot of the Polychron monastery on the Asian shore of the Sea of ​​Marmara, near the city of Cyzicus. Constantine also moved here, to a quiet shelter on Mount Olympus, for several years, in the interval between his travels to the Saracens and Khazars. The elder brother, Methodius, walked through life on a straight, clear path. Only twice did he change its direction: the first time by going to a monastery, and the second time by returning again under the influence of his younger brother to active work and struggle.

Kirill was the youngest of the brothers; from infancy he showed extraordinary mental abilities, but was not distinguished by health. The eldest, Mikhail, even in childhood games defended the youngest, weak with a disproportionately large head, with small and short arms. He will continue to protect his younger brother until his death - both in Moravia, and at the Council in Venice, and before the papal throne. And then he will continue his brotherly work in written wisdom. And, holding hands, they will go down in the history of world culture.

Cyril was educated in Constantinople at the Magnavra School, the best educational institution in Byzantium. Secretary of State Teoktist himself took care of Cyril’s education. Before reaching the age of 15, Kirill had already read the works of the most profound father of the church, Gregory the Theologian. The capable boy was taken to the court of Emperor Michael III, as a fellow student of his son. Under the guidance of the best mentors - including Photius, the future famous Patriarch of Constantinople - Cyril studied ancient literature, rhetoric, grammar, dialectics, astronomy, music and other “Hellenic arts”. The friendship between Cyril and Photius largely predetermined the future fate of Cyril. In 850, Cyril became a professor at the Magnavra school. Having abandoned a profitable marriage and a brilliant career, Kirill accepted the priesthood, and after secretly entering a monastery, he began teaching philosophy (hence the nickname Konstantin - “Philosopher”). The closeness with Photius affected Cyril’s struggle with the iconoclasts. He wins a brilliant victory over the experienced and ardent leader of the iconoclasts, which undoubtedly gives Constantine wide fame. The wisdom and strength of faith of the still very young Constantine were so great that he managed to defeat the leader of the iconoclast heretics, Annius, in a debate. After this victory, Constantine was sent by the emperor to debate about the Holy Trinity with the Saracens (Muslims) and also won. Having returned, Saint Constantine retired to his brother Saint Methodius on Olympus, spending time in unceasing prayer and reading the works of the holy fathers.

The “Life” of the saint testifies that he knew Hebrew, Slavic, Greek, Latin and Arabic languages. Refusing a profitable marriage, as well as an administrative career offered by the emperor, Kirill became the patriarchal librarian at the Hagia Sophia. Soon he secretly retired to a monastery for six months, and upon his return he taught philosophy (external - Hellenic and internal - Christian) at the court school - the highest educational institution of Byzantium. Then he received the nickname “Philosopher”, which remained with him forever. It was not for nothing that Constantine was nicknamed the Philosopher. Every now and then he would escape from noisy Byzantium somewhere into solitude. I read and thought for a long time. And then, having accumulated another supply of energy and thoughts, he generously squandered it in travel, disputes, disputes, in scientific and literary creativity. Cyril's education was highly valued in the highest circles of Constantinople, and he was often involved in various diplomatic missions.

Cyril and Methodius had many students who became their true followers. Among them I would especially like to mention Gorazd Ohrid and Saint Naum.

Gorazd Ohridski - a disciple of Methodius, the first Slavic archbishop - he was the archbishop of Mikulčica, the capital of Great Moravia. Revered by the Orthodox Church in the ranks of saints, commemorated on July 27 (after Julian calendar) in the Cathedral of Bulgarian Enlighteners. In 885-886, under Prince Svatopluk I, a crisis arose in the Moravian Church; Archbishop Gorazd entered into a dispute with the Latin clergy, headed by Wichtig, Bishop of Nitrava, against whom St. Methodius imposed an anathema. Wichtig, with the approval of the pope, expelled Gorazd from the diocese and 200 priests with him, and he himself took his place as archbishop. At the same time, Kliment of Ohrid fled to Bulgaria. They took with them the works created in Moravia and settled in Bulgaria. Those who did not obey - according to the testimony of the Life of St. Clement of Ohrid - were sold into slavery to Jewish merchants, from which they were redeemed by the ambassadors of Emperor Basil I in Venice and transported to Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, students created world-famous literary schools in Pliska, Ohrid and Preslavl, from where their works began to travel throughout Rus'.

Naum is a Bulgarian saint, especially revered in modern Macedonia and Bulgaria. Saint Naum, together with Cyril and Methodius, as well as with his ascetic Clement of Ohrid, is one of the founders of Bulgarian religious literature. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church includes Saint Naum among the Seven. In 886-893 he lived in Preslav, becoming the organizer of a local literary school. Afterwards he created a school in Ohrid. In 905 he founded a monastery on the shores of Lake Ohrid, today named after him. His relics are also kept there.

Mount St. Naum on the island of Smolensk (Livingston) is also named after him.

In 858, Constantine, at the initiative of Photius, became the head of the mission to the Khazars. During the mission, Constantine replenishes his knowledge of the Hebrew language, which was used by the educated elite of the Khazars after they adopted Judaism. On the way, during a stop in Chersonese (Korsun), Constantine discovered the remains of Clement, Pope of Rome (1st-2nd centuries), who died, as they thought then, here in exile, and took part of them to Byzantium. The journey deep into Khazaria was filled with theological disputes with the Mohammedans and Jews. Constantine subsequently outlined the entire course of the dispute in Greek for reporting to the patriarch; Later, this report, according to legend, was translated by Methodius into the Slavic language, but, unfortunately, this work has not reached us. At the end of 862, the prince of Great Moravia (the state of the Western Slavs) Rostislav turned to the Byzantine Emperor Michael with a request to send preachers to Moravia who could spread Christianity in the Slavic language (sermons in those parts were read in Latin, unfamiliar and incomprehensible to the people). The emperor called Saint Constantine and told him: “You need to go there, because no one will do this better than you.” Saint Constantine, with fasting and prayer, began a new feat. Constantine goes to Bulgaria, converts many Bulgarians to Christianity; according to some scientists, during this trip he begins his work on the creation of the Slavic alphabet. Constantine and Methodius arrived in Great Moravia speaking the southern Slavic dialect of Soluni (now Thessalonica), i.e. the center of that part of Macedonia, which from time immemorial and up to our time belonged to Northern Greece. In Moravia, the brothers taught literacy and involved in translation activities, and not just rewriting books, people who undoubtedly spoke some kind of northwestern Slavic dialects. This is directly evidenced by lexical, word-formation, phonetic and other linguistic discrepancies in the oldest Slavic books that have come down to us (in the Gospel, Apostle, Psalter, Menaion of the 10th-11th centuries). Indirect evidence is the later practice of Grand Duke Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, described in the Old Russian Chronicle, when he introduced Christianity in Rus' as the state religion in 988. It was the children of his “deliberate children” (i.e., the children of his courtiers and the feudal elite) that Vladimir attracted for “book training,” sometimes even doing this by force, since the Chronicle reports that their mothers cried over them as if they were dead.

After the translation was completed, the holy brothers were received from great honor in Moravia, and began to teach Divine services in the Slavic language. This aroused the anger of the German bishops, who performed divine services in Latin in the Moravian churches, and they rebelled against the holy brothers, arguing that divine services could only be performed in one of three languages: Hebrew, Greek or Latin. Saint Constantine answered them: “You recognize only three languages ​​worthy of glorifying God in them. But David cries: Sing to the Lord, all the earth, praise the Lord, all nations, let every breath praise the Lord! And in the Holy Gospel it is said: Go and learn all languages...” The German bishops were disgraced, but became even more embittered and filed a complaint to Rome. The holy brothers were called to Rome to resolve this issue.

To be able to preach Christianity in the Slavic language, it was necessary to translate the Holy Scriptures into the Slavic language; however, there was no alphabet capable of conveying Slavic speech at that moment.

Constantine began to create the Slavic alphabet. With the help of his brother Saint Methodius and the disciples Gorazd, Clement, Savva, Naum and Angelar, he compiled the Slavic alphabet and translated into Slavic the books without which the Divine service could not be performed: the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter and selected services. All these events date back to 863.

The year 863 is considered the year of birth of the Slavic alphabet

In 863, the Slavic alphabet was created (the Slavic alphabet existed in two versions: the Glagolitic alphabet - from the verb - “speech” and the Cyrillic alphabet; until now, scientists do not have a consensus which of these two options was created by Cyril). With the help of Methodius, a number of liturgical books were translated from Greek into Slavic. The Slavs were given the opportunity to read and write in their own language. The Slavs not only acquired their own Slavic alphabet, but also the first Slavic literary language was born, many words of which still live in Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian and other Slavic languages.

Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Church Slavonic language, which in turn was a kind of catalyst for the creation of Old Russian literary language, Old Bulgarian and other literary languages Slavic peoples.

The younger brother wrote, the older brother translated his works. The younger created the Slavic alphabet, Slavic writing and book publishing; the older one practically developed what the younger one created. The younger was a talented scientist, philosopher, brilliant dialectician and subtle philologist; the eldest is a capable organizer and practical activist.

Constantine, in the quiet of his refuge, was probably busy completing the work that was in connection with his not new plans for the conversion of the pagan Slavs. He compiled a special alphabet for the Slavic language, the so-called Glagolitic alphabet, and began translating the Holy Scriptures into Old Bulgarian. The brothers decided to return to their homeland and, in order to consolidate their business in Moravia, take with them some of the students, the Moravians, for education in the hierarchical ranks. On the way to Venice, which lay through Bulgaria, the brothers stayed for several months in the Pannonian principality of Kotsela, where, despite its ecclesiastical and political dependence, they did the same as in Moravia. Upon his arrival in Venice, Constantine had a violent clash with the local clergy. Here, in Venice, unexpectedly for the local clergy, they are given a kind message from Pope Nicholas with an invitation to Rome. Having received the papal invitation, the brothers continued their journey with almost complete confidence in success. This was further facilitated by the sudden death of Nicholas and the accession to the papal throne of Adrian II.

Rome solemnly greeted the brothers and the shrine they brought, part of the remains of Pope Clement. Adrian II approved not only the Slavic translation Holy Scripture, but also Slavic worship, consecrating the Slavic books brought by the brothers, allowing the Slavs to perform services in a number of Roman churches, and ordaining Methodius and his three disciples as priests. The influential prelates of Rome also reacted favorably to the brothers and their cause.

All these successes did not come easily to the brothers, of course. A skillful dialectician and experienced diplomat, Constantine skillfully used for this purpose the struggle of Rome with Byzantium, and the vacillations of the Bulgarian prince Boris between the Eastern and Western churches, and the hatred of Pope Nicholas for Photius, and Adrian’s desire to strengthen his shaky authority by acquiring the remains of Clement. At the same time, Byzantium and Photius were still much closer to Constantine than Rome and the popes. But during the three and a half years of his life and struggle in Moravia, the main, only goal of Constantine was to strengthen the Slavic writing, Slavic bookmaking and culture that he created.

For almost two years, surrounded by sugary flattery and praise, combined with hidden intrigues of temporarily quiet opponents of Slavic worship, Constantine and Methodius lived in Rome. One of the reasons for their long delay was Constantine’s increasingly deteriorating health.

Despite weakness and illness, Constantine composed two new literary works in Rome: “The Discovery of the Relics of St. Clement” and a poetic hymn in honor of the same Clement.

The long and difficult journey to Rome, the intense struggle with the irreconcilable enemies of Slavic writing, undermined Constantine’s already weak health. At the beginning of February 869, he went to bed, took the schema and the new monastic name Cyril, and died on February 14. Retreating to God, Saint Cyril commanded his brother Saint Methodius to continue their common cause - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples with light true faith.

Before his death, Kirill told his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, drove the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t think about leaving the work of teaching and retiring to your mountain again.” Methodius outlived his brother by 16 years. Enduring hardships and reproaches, he continued his great work - translating holy books into Slavic, preaching the Orthodox faith, and baptizing the Slavic people. Saint Methodius begged the Pope to allow his brother's body to be taken away for burial in native land, but the pope ordered the relics of St. Cyril to be placed in the church of St. Clement, where miracles began to be performed from them.

After the death of St. Cyril, the pope, following the request of the Slavic prince Kocel, sent St. Methodius to Pannonia, ordaining him to the rank of Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia, to the ancient throne of St. Apostle Andronikos. After the death of Cyril (869), Methodius continued his educational activities among the Slavs in Pannonia, where the Slavic books also included features of local dialects. Subsequently, the Old Church Slavonic literary language was developed by the students of the Thessaloniki brothers in the area of ​​Lake Ohrid, then in Bulgaria proper.

With the death of a talented brother, for the modest, but selfless and honest Methodius, a painful, truly path of the cross begins, strewn with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, dangers and failures. But lonely Methodius stubbornly, in no way inferior to his enemies, follows this path to the very end.

True, on the threshold of this path, Methodius relatively easily achieves new great success. But this success gives rise to an even greater storm of anger and resistance in the camp of the enemies of Slavic writing and culture.

In the middle of 869, Adrian II, at the request of the Slavic princes, sent Methodius to Rostislav, his nephew Svyatopolk and Kocel, and at the end of 869, when Methodius returned to Rome, he elevated him to the rank of Archbishop of Pannonia, allowing worship in the Slavic language. Inspired by this new success, Methodius returns to Kotsel. With the constant help of the prince, he, together with his students, began a large and vigorous work to spread Slavic worship, writing and books in the Principality of Blaten and in neighboring Moravia.

In 870, Methodius was sentenced to prison, having been accused of violating hierarchical rights in Pannonia.

He remained in prison, under the most difficult conditions, until 873, when the new Pope John VIII forced the Bavarian episcopate to release Methodius and return him to Moravia. Methodius is prohibited from Slavic worship.

He continues the work of the church structure of Moravia. Contrary to the pope's prohibition, Methodius continues to worship in the Slavic language in Moravia. Methodius this time also involved other Slavic peoples neighboring Moravia in the circle of his activities.

All this prompted the German clergy to take new actions against Methodius. German priests turn Svyatopolk against Methodius. Svyatopolk writes a denunciation to Rome against his archbishop, accusing him of heresy, of violating the canons catholic church and in disobedience to the pope. Methodius manages not only to justify himself, but even to win over Pope John to his side. Pope John allows Methodius to worship in the Slavic language, but appoints Viching, one of Methodius’s most ardent opponents, to be his bishop. Viching began to spread rumors about the condemnation of Methodius by Pope, but was exposed.

Extremely tired and exhausted by all these endless intrigues, forgeries and denunciations, feeling that his health was constantly weakening, Methodius went to rest in Byzantium. Methodius spent almost three years in his homeland. In mid-884 He returns to Moravia. Returning to Moravia, Methodius in 883. began translating the full text of the canonical books of Holy Scripture into Slavic (except for the Maccabees). Having finished his hard work, Methodius weakened even more. IN last years During his lifetime, Methodius' activities in Moravia took place under very difficult conditions. The Latin-German clergy in every way prevented the spread of the Slavic language as the language of the church. In the last years of his life, Saint Methodius, with the help of two disciple-priests, translated the entire Old Testament, except for the Maccabean books, as well as the Nomocanon (Rules of the Holy Fathers) and the patristic books (Paterikon).

Anticipating the approach of his death, Saint Methodius pointed to one of his disciples, Gorazd, as a worthy successor. The saint predicted the day of his death and died on April 6, 885 at the age of about 60 years. The funeral service for the saint was performed in three languages ​​- Slavic, Greek and Latin. He was buried in the cathedral church of Velehrad.

With the death of Methodius, his work in Moravia came close to destruction. With the arrival of Viching in Moravia, the persecution of the disciples of Constantine and Methodius began, and the destruction of their Slavic church. Up to 200 clergy disciples of Methodius were expelled from Moravia. The Moravian people gave them no support. Thus, the cause of Constantine and Methodius died not only in Moravia, but also among the Western Slavs in general. But it received further life and flourishing among the Southern Slavs, partly among the Croats, more so among the Serbs, especially among the Bulgarians and, through the Bulgarians, among the Russians and Eastern Slavs, who united their destinies with Byzantium. This happened thanks to the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, expelled from Moravia.

From the period of activity of Constantine, his brother Methodius and their closest disciples, no written monuments have reached us, except for the relatively recently discovered inscriptions on the ruins of the church of King Simeon in Preslav (Bulgaria). It turned out that these ancient inscriptions were made not with one, but with two graphic varieties of Old Church Slavonic writing. One of them received the conventional name “Cyrillic” (from the name Cyril, adopted by Constantine when he was tonsured a monk); the other received the name “glagolitic” (from the Old Slavonic “verb”, which means “word”).

In their alphabetic composition, the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets were almost identical. Cyrillic, according to the manuscripts of the 11th century that have reached us. had 43 letters, and the Glagolitic alphabet had 40 letters. Of the 40 Glagolitic letters, 39 served to convey almost the same sounds as the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. Like the letters of the Greek alphabet, Glagolitic and Cyrillic letters had, in addition to sound, also a digital meaning, i.e. were used to designate not only speech sounds, but also numbers. At the same time, nine letters served to designate units, nine - for tens and nine - for hundreds. In Glagolitic, in addition, one of the letters denoted a thousand; in Cyrillic, a special sign was used to designate thousands. In order to indicate that a letter stands for a number and not a sound, the letter was usually highlighted on both sides with dots and a special horizontal line was placed above it.

In the Cyrillic alphabet, as a rule, only letters borrowed from the Greek alphabet had digital values: each of 24 such letters was assigned the same digital value that this letter had in the Greek digital system. The only exceptions were the numbers “6”, “90” and “900”.

Unlike the Cyrillic alphabet, in the Glagolitic alphabet the first 28 letters in a row received a numerical value, regardless of whether these letters corresponded to Greek or served to convey special sounds of Slavic speech. Therefore, the numerical value of most Glagolitic letters was different from both Greek and Cyrillic letters.

The names of the letters in the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet were exactly the same; However, the time of origin of these names is unclear. The order of letters in the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets was almost the same. This order is established Firstly, based on the digital meaning of the letters of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet, secondly, based on the acrostics of the 12th-13th centuries that have come down to us, thirdly, based on the order of letters in the Greek alphabet.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic were very different in the shape of their letters. In the Cyrillic alphabet, the shape of the letters was geometrically simple, clear and easy to write. Of the 43 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, 24 were borrowed from the Byzantine charter, and the remaining 19 were constructed more or less independently, but in compliance with the uniform style of the Cyrillic alphabet. The shape of the Glagolitic letters, on the contrary, was extremely complex and intricate, with many curls, loops, etc. But the Glagolitic letters were graphically more original than the Kirillov ones, and were much less like the Greek ones.

The Cyrillic alphabet is a very skillful, complex and creative reworking of the Greek (Byzantine) alphabet. As a result of careful consideration of the phonetic composition of the Old Church Slavonic language, the Cyrillic alphabet had all the letters necessary for the correct transmission of this language. The Cyrillic alphabet was also suitable for accurately transmitting the Russian language in the 9th-10th centuries. The Russian language was already somewhat different phonetically from Old Church Slavonic. The correspondence of the Cyrillic alphabet to the Russian language is confirmed by the fact that for more than a thousand years it was necessary to introduce only two new letters into this alphabet; Multi-letter combinations and superscript symbols are not needed and are almost never used in Russian writing. This is precisely what determines the originality of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Thus, despite the fact that many letters of the Cyrillic alphabet coincide in form with Greek letters, the Cyrillic alphabet (as well as the Glagolitic alphabet) should be recognized as one of the most independent, creatively and innovatively constructed letter-sound systems.

The presence of two graphic varieties of Slavic writing still causes great controversy among scientists. After all, according to the unanimous testimony of all chronicles and documentary sources, Constantine developed one Slavic alphabet. Which of these alphabets was created by Constantine? Where and when did the second alphabet appear? These questions are closely related to others, perhaps even more important. Didn’t the Slavs have some kind of written language before the introduction of the alphabet developed by Constantine? And if it existed, what was it?

A number of works by Russian and Bulgarian scientists were devoted to evidence of the existence of writing in the pre-Cyrillic period among the Slavs, in particular among the eastern and southern ones. As a result of these works, as well as in connection with the discovery ancient monuments Slavic writing, the question of the existence of writing among the Slavs can hardly raise doubts. This is evidenced by many ancient literary sources: Slavic, Western European, Arabic. This is confirmed by the instructions contained in the treaties of the Eastern and Southern Slavs with Byzantium, some archaeological data, as well as linguistic, historical and general socialist considerations.

Fewer materials are available to resolve the question of what the ancient Slavic letter was and how it arose. Pre-Cyrillic Slavic writing, apparently, could only be of three types. So, in light of the development general patterns development of writing, it seems almost certain that long before the formation of ties between the Slavs and Byzantium, they had various local varieties of the original primitive pictographic writing, such as the “devils and cuts” mentioned by Brave. The emergence of Slavic writing of the “devils and cuts” type should probably be attributed to the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. True, the oldest Slavic letter could only have been a very primitive letter, which included a small, unstable and different assortment of simple figurative and conventional signs among different tribes. There was no way this writing could turn into any developed and ordered logographic system.

The use of the original Slavic script was also limited. These were, apparently, the simplest counting signs in the form of dashes and notches, family and personal signs, signs of ownership, signs for fortune telling, perhaps primitive route diagrams, calendar signs that served to date the start of various agricultural works, pagan holidays and so on. In addition to sociological and linguistic considerations, the existence of such writing among the Slavs is confirmed by quite numerous literary sources of the 9th-10th centuries. and archaeological finds. Having originated in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, this letter was probably preserved by the Slavs even after Cyril created an orderly Slavic alphabet.

The second, even more undoubted type of pre-Christian writing of the Eastern and Southern Slavs was a letter that can be conditionally called the “Proto-Cyril” letter. A letter of the “devils and cuts” type, suitable for indicating calendar dates, for fortune telling, counting, etc., was unsuitable for recording military and trade agreements, liturgical texts, historical chronicles and other complex documents. And the need for such records should have appeared among the Slavs simultaneously with the emergence of the first Slavic states. For all these purposes, the Slavs, even before they adopted Christianity and before the introduction of the alphabet created by Cyril, undoubtedly used Greek in the east and south, and Greek and Latin letters in the west.

The Greek script, used by the Slavs for two or three centuries before their official adoption of Christianity, had to gradually adapt to the transmission of the unique phonetics of the Slavic language and, in particular, be replenished with new letters. This was necessary for the accurate recording of Slavic names in churches, in military lists, for recording Slavic geographical names, etc. The Slavs have come a long way towards adapting Greek writing to more accurately convey their speech. To do this, ligatures were formed from the corresponding Greek letters, the Greek letters were supplemented with letters borrowed from other alphabets, in particular from the Hebrew, which was known to the Slavs through the Khazars. This is how the Slavic “Proto-Cyril” letter was probably formed. The assumption about such a gradual formation of the Slavic “proto-Cyril” letter is also confirmed by the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet in its later version that has come down to us was so well adapted for the accurate transmission of Slavic speech that this could only be achieved as a result of its long development. These are two undoubted varieties of pre-Christian Slavic writing.

The third, although not undoubted, but only a possible variety, can be called “proto-glagolic” writing.

The process of formation of the supposed proto-glagolic letter could occur in two ways. Firstly, this process could have taken place under the complex influence of Greek, Jewish-Khazar, and possibly also Georgian, Armenian and even runic Turkic writing. Under the influence of these writing systems, Slavic “lines and cuts” could gradually also acquire a letter-sound meaning, while partially retaining their original form. Secondly, and some Greek letters could have been graphically modified by the Slavs in relation to the usual forms of “lines and cuts”. Like the Cyrillic alphabet, the formation of proto-glagolic writing could also have begun among the Slavs no earlier than the 8th century. Since this letter was formed on the primitive basis of the ancient Slavic “traits and cuts”, by the middle of the 9th century. it was supposed to remain even less precise and orderly than the Proto-Cyril letter. Unlike the Proto-Cyrillic alphabet, the formation of which took place throughout almost the entire Slavic territory, which was under the influence of Byzantine culture, the Proto-Glagolitic letter, if it existed, was apparently first formed among the Eastern Slavs. In conditions of insufficient development in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. political and cultural connections between the Slavic tribes, the formation of each of the three supposed types of pre-Christian Slavic writing would have occurred in different tribes in different ways. Therefore, we can assume the coexistence among the Slavs not only of these three types of writing, but also of their local varieties. In the history of writing, cases of such coexistence were very frequent.

Currently, the writing systems of all the peoples of Russia are built on the Cyrillic basis. Writing systems built on the same basis are also used in Bulgaria, partly in Yugoslavia and Mongolia. A script built on the Cyrillic basis is now used by peoples who speak more than 60 languages. The Latin and Cyrillic groups of writing systems seem to have the greatest vitality. This is confirmed by the fact that more and more new peoples are gradually switching to the Latin and Cyrillic basis of writing.

Thus, the foundations laid by Constantine and Methodius more than 1100 years ago continue to be continuously improved and successfully developed up to the present day. At the moment, most researchers believe that Cyril and Methodius created the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet by their students.

From the turn of the X-XI centuries. Kyiv, Novgorod, and the centers of other ancient Russian principalities became the largest centers of Slavic writing. The oldest Slavic-language handwritten books that have come down to us, having the date of their writing, were created in Rus'. These are the Ostromir Gospel of 1056-1057, the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073, the Izbornik of 1076, the Archangel Gospel of 1092, the Novgorod Menaions dated to the 90s. The largest and most valuable fund of ancient handwritten books dating back to the written heritage of Cyril and Methodius, like those named, is located in the ancient repositories of our country.

The unbending faith of two people in Christ and in their ascetic mission for the good of the Slavic peoples - that’s what it was driving force the penetration, in the end, of writing into Ancient Rus'. The exceptional intellect of one and the stoic courage of the other - the qualities of two people who lived very long before us, turned out to be the fact that we now write them in letters, and put together our picture of the world according to their grammar and rules.

It is impossible to overestimate the introduction of writing into Slavic society. This is the greatest Byzantine contribution to the culture of the Slavic peoples. And he was created by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Only with the establishment of writing does it begin true story people, the history of their culture, the history of the development of their worldview, scientific knowledge, literature and art.

Cyril and Methodius never, in their life’s collisions and wanderings, found themselves in the lands of Ancient Rus'. They lived more than a hundred years before they were officially baptized here and their letters were accepted. It would seem that Cyril and Methodius belong to the history of other nations. But it was they who radically changed the existence of the Russian people. They gave him the Cyrillic alphabet, which became the blood and flesh of his culture. And this is the greatest gift to people from an ascetic man.

In addition to the invention of the Slavic alphabet, during the 40 months of their stay in Moravia, Constantine and Methodius managed to solve two problems: some liturgical books were translated into Church Slavonic (ancient Slavic literary) language and people were trained who could serve using these books. However, this was not enough to spread Slavic worship. Neither Constantine nor Methodius were bishops and could not ordain their disciples as priests. Cyril was a monk, Methodius was a simple priest, and the local bishop was an opponent of Slavic worship. To give their activities official status, the brothers and several of their students went to Rome. In Venice, Constantine entered into a debate with opponents of worship at national languages. In Latin spiritual literature, the idea was popular that worship could only be performed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The brothers' stay in Rome was triumphant. Constantine and Methodius brought with them the relics of St. Clement, Pope of Rome, who, according to legend, was a disciple of the Apostle Peter. Clement's relics were a precious gift, and Constantine's Slavic translations were blessed.

The disciples of Cyril and Methodius were ordained priests, while the Pope sent a message to the Moravian rulers in which he officially allowed the services to be performed in the Slavic language: “After reflection, we decided to send to your countries our son Methodius, ordained by us, with his disciples, a perfect man reason and true faith, so that he enlightens you, as you yourself asked, explaining to you in your language the Holy Scripture, the entire liturgical rite and the Holy Mass, that is, services, including baptism, as the philosopher Constantine began to do with God's grace and by prayers of Saint Clement."

After the death of the brothers, their activities were continued by their students, expelled from Moravia in 886, in the South Slavic countries. (In the West, the Slavic alphabet and Slavic literacy did not survive; Western Slavs - Poles, Czechs ... - still use the Latin alphabet). Slavic literacy was firmly established in Bulgaria, from where it spread to the countries of the southern and eastern Slavs (9th century). Writing came to Rus' in the 10th century (988 - the baptism of Rus'). The creation of the Slavic alphabet was and still is of great importance for the development of Slavic writing, Slavic peoples, and Slavic culture.

The merits of Cyril and Methodius in the history of culture are enormous. Kirill developed the first ordered Slavic alphabet and thus marked the beginning of the widespread development of Slavic writing. Cyril and Methodius translated many books from Greek, which was the beginning of the formation of the Old Church Slavonic literary language and Slavic bookmaking. For many years, Cyril and Methodius carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. There is information that Kirill also created original works. For many years, Cyril and Methodius carried out great educational work among the Western and Southern Slavs and greatly contributed to the spread of literacy among these peoples. Throughout all their activities in Moravia and Panionia, Cyril and Methodius also waged a constant, selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books.

Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old Church Slavonic language, which in turn was a kind of catalyst for the creation of the Old Russian literary language, Old Bulgarian and the literary languages ​​of other Slavic peoples. The Old Church Slavonic language was able to fulfill this role primarily due to the fact that it was not initially something rigid and stagnant: it itself was formed from several Slavic languages ​​or dialects.

Finally, when assessing the educational activities of the Thessaloniki brothers, it should be borne in mind that they were not missionaries in the generally accepted sense of the word: they were not involved in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), for Moravia by the time of their arrival was already a Christian state.

Introduction

Slavic writing enlightener antique

Since childhood, we get used to the letters of our Russian alphabet and rarely think about when and how our writing arose. The creation of the Slavic alphabet is a special milestone in the history of every nation, in the history of its culture. In the depths of millennia and centuries, the names of the creators of the writing of a particular people or language family are usually lost. But the Slavic alphabet has an absolutely amazing origin. Thanks to a whole series of historical evidence, we know about the beginning of the Slavic alphabet and about its creators - Saints Cyril and Methodius.

Language and writing are perhaps the most important culture-forming factors. If the people are deprived of the right or opportunity to speak native language, then this will be the most severe blow to his native culture. If books in their native language are taken away from a person, he will lose the most important treasures of his culture. An adult, for example, who finds himself abroad, will probably not forget his native language. But his children and grandchildren will have great difficulties mastering the language of their parents and their people. Russian emigration of the 20th century, based on their difficult experience, answered the question “What place do the native language and native literature occupy in Russian culture?” gives a very clear answer: “Primary!”

Creation of the Slavic alphabet

Contemporaries and students of the first teachers of the Slavs compiled their lives in Church Slavonic. These biographies have been tested for centuries for authenticity and to this day are recognized by Slavists of all countries as the most important sources on the history of Slavic writing and culture. The best edition of the oldest copies of the biographies of Cyril and Methodius, prepared jointly by Russian and Bulgarian scientists, was published in 1986. Here are lists of lives and words of praise for Cyril and Methodius of the 12th-15th centuries. The facsimile edition in this book of the most ancient lives of the Slavic enlighteners gives it special significance. Facsimile - “exactly reproduced” (from the Latin fac simile “do like”). Reading handwritten lives and words of praise to Cyril and Methodius, we penetrate back centuries and get closer to the origins of the Slavic alphabet and culture.

In addition to hagiographic literature, the most interesting evidence of the ancient Bulgarian writer of the late 9th-early 10th century, Monk Khrabra, who wrote the first essay on the history of the creation of Slavic writing, has been preserved.

If you ask the Slavic literati like this:

Who wrote your letters or translated your books,

Everyone knows that and, answering, they say:

Saint Constantine the Philosopher, named Cyril,

He created letters for us and translated books.

The homeland of the brothers Constantine (that was the name of St. Cyril before he became a monk) and Methodius was the Macedonian region of Byzantium, namely main city region - Thessaloniki, or in Slavic Thessaloniki. The father of the future enlighteners of the Slavic peoples belonged to the highest stratum of Byzantine society. Methodius was the eldest, and Constantine the youngest of his seven sons. The exact year of birth of each brother is not known. Researchers place the year of birth of Methodius in the second decade of the 9th century. Konstantin learned to read very early and surprised everyone with his ability to master other languages. He received a comprehensive education at the imperial court in Constantinople under the guidance of the best mentors in Byzantium, among whom stood out the future Patriarch of Constantinople Photius, an expert ancient culture, the creator of a unique bibliographic collection known as the “Miriobiblion” - and Lev the Grammar - a man who surprised compatriots and foreigners with his deep learning, an expert in mathematics, astronomy and mechanics.

The Life of Constantine reports on his education: “In three months he studied all the grammar and took up other sciences. He studied Homer, geometry, and from Leo and Photius he studied dialectics and other philosophical teachings, in addition to rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music and other Hellenic sciences. And so he studied all this, as no one else had studied these sciences.” The ancient heritage and all modern secular science were considered by Constantine's teachers to be a necessary preliminary stage to the comprehension of the highest wisdom - Theology.

This was also consistent with the ancient church Christian scientific tradition: the famous 4th-century Church Fathers Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, before entering church service, were educated in the best educational institutions of Constantinople and Athens. Basil the Great even wrote a special instruction: “To young men, on how to benefit from pagan writings.” “The Slavic alphabet taught by Saint Cyril contributed not only to the development of a unique Slavic culture, but was also important factor the development of young Slavic nations, their revival and liberation from the spiritual tutelage, turning into oppression, of foreign neighbors. What Saints Cyril and Methodius did served as the foundation on which the beautiful edifice of the current Slavic culture was built, which has taken its honorable place in the world culture of mankind.” Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov). From the speech “Equal to the Apostles,” delivered on the 1100th anniversary of the death of St. Cyril. Hagiographic literature, which has preserved for us precious information about life and scientific activity Thessalonica brothers, assigned to Constantine the name Filosov (i.e. “lover of wisdom”). In this regard, an episode from the childhood of the future educator of the Slavs is of particular interest. As a seven-year-old boy, Konstantin had a dream, which he told his father and mother. The strategist (the head of the region), having gathered all the girls of Thessaloniki, told him: “Choose from among them whomever you want as your wife, to help (you) and your peer.” “I,” said Constantine, “having examined and examined them all, saw one more beautiful than all, with a shining face, decorated with gold necklaces and pearls and all beauty, her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom, and her (I) chose." After completing a course in science, he took the department of philosophy at the Magnavra High School of Constantinople, where he himself had previously studied, Constantine the Philosopher also served as the patriarchal librarian. And, in the “books of diligence,” he rose more and more from book wisdom to the highest Wisdom, preparing for the great mission - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples.

Constantine's embassy to Moravia in 863 was of epochal significance for the entire Slavic world. The Moravian prince Rostislav asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send to him preachers who spoke the Slavic language: “Our land is baptized, but we do not have a teacher who would instruct and teach us, and explain the holy books. After all, we do not know either Greek or Latin; Some teach us this way, and others teach us differently, so we don’t know either the shape of the letters or their meaning. And send us teachers who could tell us about book words and their meaning.”

“Teaching without the alphabet and without books is like writing a conversation on water,” answered Constantine the Philosopher to Emperor Michael when he invited him to go on an educational mission to the Moravian Christians. Konstantin the Philosopher composed the alphabet for the Slavs and, together with his brother, translated the first texts from the Gospel and Psalter. Thus, the year 863 in the history of Slavic culture is marked as the year of the creation of the Slavic alphabet, which marked the beginning of the Slavic enlightenment. The Gospel of John stands out from among all biblical books for its abundance of religious and philosophical concepts and categories. Through the Church Slavonic translation of this Gospel made by Cyril and Methodius, many philosophical (ontological, epistemological, aesthetic, ethical) and other terms entered the Slavic language and everyday life of Slavic philosophy: “light”, “enlightenment”, “truth”, “man”, “grace”, “life” (“belly”), “peace”, “testimony”, “power”, “darkness”, “fullness”, “knowledge”, “faith”, “glory”, “eternity” and many other. Most of these terms are firmly entrenched in the language and literature of the Slavic peoples.

The creation of Slavic writing was not only the invention of the alphabet with all the signs characteristic of the written expression of speech, and the creation of terminology. Colossal work was also done to create a new toolkit for Slavic writing. The books that Cyril and Methodius translated from Greek and wrote in Slavic contained examples of a number of literary genres. For example, biblical texts included historical and biographical genres, monologues and dialogues, as well as examples of the most exquisite poetry. Liturgical Slavic texts from the pens of the first teachers for the most part were intended for chanting or even for choral performance and thereby served the development of the musical culture of the Slavs. The first translations of patristic texts (works of the holy fathers) into the Slavic language included works of a philosophical nature. The first church-canonical Slavic collections contained translations of monuments of Byzantine legislation, that is, they laid the foundation for the legal literature of the Slavs.

Each literary genre has its own characteristics and requires its own verbal forms and visual means. To create a full-fledged toolkit of Slavic writing, which, on the one hand, would preserve the natural beauty of the Slavic language, and on the other, convey all the literary merits and subtleties of the Greek originals, is truly a task for several generations. But historical sources indicate that this enormous philological work was done by the Thessaloniki brothers and their immediate students in an amazingly short time. This is all the more surprising because the Orthodox missionaries Cyril and Methodius, although they had an excellent knowledge of the Slavic dialect, had neither scientific grammar, nor dictionaries, nor examples of highly artistic Slavic writing.

Here is what is said in one of the many reviews of modern scientists about the philological feat of Cyril and Methodius: “Unlike other methods of recording Slavic speech practiced in that era, the Slavic letter of Constantine-Cyril was a special complete system, created with careful consideration of the specific features of the Slavic language. Translations of works in which Constantine and Methodius tried to find an adequate expression for all the features of these monuments meant not just the emergence of the literary language of the medieval Slavs, but its composition immediately in those mature, developed forms that were developed in the Greek text of the originals as a result of centuries-old literary development "

Maybe someone before Cyril and Methodius did experiments on creating Slavic writing, but there are only hypotheses on this matter. And numerous historical sources testify specifically to Cyril and Methodius as the creators of the Slavic alphabet, writing and literature. However, the history of the creation of Slavic writing has one very interesting mystery. In the 9th century, the Slavs developed almost simultaneously two writing systems: one was called the Glagolitic alphabet, and the other, the Cyrillic alphabet. Which alphabet - Cyrillic or Glagolitic - was invented by Constantine the Philosopher? Many scientists are inclined to believe that the first Slavic alphabet was the Glagolitic alphabet. Others believe that Saint Cyril invented the Cyrillic alphabet. Perhaps the first teachers of the Slavs created both of these writing systems, but later the Cyrillic alphabet became most widespread, which became the basis of the modern Russian alphabet. But no matter how these questions are subsequently resolved by science, the evidence of historical sources about the brothers Cyril and Methodius as the creators of Slavic writing and book culture remains unchanged. The Orthodox mission of Cyril and Methodius also became a decisive factor for the formation of a single cultural space of the Slavic peoples. In the 19th century, the famous Russian archaeographer Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin found and published the manuscript “The Word of our teacher Constantine the Philosopher” in the book depository of the Hilendar (Serbian) monastery on Mount Athos. In it, Constantine the Philosopher addresses all Slavic peoples: “In the same way, hear the Slovenes of all... Hear, Slovenian the whole people... Behold, all of us, brothers of Slovenia, conspiring, speak light appropriately.”

To whom was the word of the enlighteners Cyril and Methodius addressed? To all the peoples of the Slavic world, which in the 9th century was not as divided linguistically as in subsequent centuries. From the Baltic Sea in the north to the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic in the south, from the Laba (Elbe) and the Alps in the west and to the Volga in the east, Slavic tribes settled, the names of which were conveyed by our “initial chronicle”: Moravians, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Horutans, Polyans, Drevlyans, Mazovshans, Pomeranians, Dregovichi, Polochans, Buzhans, Volynians, Novgorodians, Dulebs, Tivertsy, Radimichi, Vyatichi. They all spoke the “Slovenian language” and all received education and native literature from their first teachers.

Constantine the Philosopher, having accepted monasticism with the name Cyril shortly before his death, died in 869. Methodius outlived his younger brother by 16 years. Before his death, Kirill bequeathed to his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, plowed the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t think about leaving the work of teaching and retiring to the mountain (to the monastery) again.” Saint Methodius fulfilled his brother’s order and until the end of his earthly life he worked on translating the Bible, liturgical books and collections of church law. Methodius died in 885, leaving behind many successors who knew and loved Church Slavonic books.

“Translating the Byzantine text into Russian is a grateful and joyful work, because modern translator energetically assisted by his ancient predecessors; The historical fate of the Russian language opened it up to opportunities specific to Byzantium to link and weave words. In English or French, the same text can only be retold, recklessly sacrificing its verbal fabric, and even German translation it is possible to approach the true warehouse of Hellenic orbit only at a respectful distance. The tradition of Russian culture embodied in language is connected with the Byzantine heritage in a very tenacious, very real and specific connection. We shouldn’t forget about this.”

The greatest service of Cyril and Methodius to the Slavic world was also that they tried to leave their students everywhere - continuers of the work of enlightening the Slavic peoples. Their disciples continued the Orthodox mission in Moravia and Panonia, and through the next line of successors, the Cyril and Methodius book traditions reached southern Poland, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria.

The Cyril and Methodius Orthodox missionary tradition, in contrast to the Western Catholic one, was characterized by the fact that the oral preaching of the Gospel, church service and schooling - all this was done in the native language of those peoples to whom the followers of Cyril and Methodius brought Orthodoxy and Orthodox culture. The introduction of the Slavic language into worship was especially important, because at that time the liturgical language was also the language of literature. With the Baptism of Rus', books in the Slavic language began to spread very quickly on Russian soil. “In The Tale of Bygone Years, which is attentive to all the events of Russian culture, there are neither names nor dates associated with Russian writing itself. And this, undoubtedly, is because Cyril and Methodius were in the minds of the scribes of Rus' the true creators of a single writing system for all eastern and southern Slavs. The Russian “Tale of the Translation of Books into the Slavic Language,” placed in the “Tale of Bygone Years,” begins with the words: “There is no single Slovenian language.” Further in this “Legend” it is said: “And the Slovenian language and the Russian language are one,” and a little lower it is repeated again: “... and the Slovenian language is one.”

Currently in Russian culture Church Slavonic language most often recognized as the language of prayer and Orthodox worship. But its significance does not end there. “In general, the significance of the Church Slavonic language for Russian is that it represents the entire history of the Russian language placed on one plane, for in Church Slavonic at the same time there are monuments that go back to the activities of the Slavic first teachers - St. Nestor, Metropolitan Hilarion, Cyril of Turov, St. Maxim Greek and further to the present day." M.V. wrote about the fateful significance of the Church Slavonic language and Church Slavonic writing for Russian culture in his “Preface on the benefits of church books in the Russian language.” Lomonosov: “The Russian language in full strength, beauty and richness is not subject to change and decline; it will be established as long as the Russian Church is adorned with the praise of God in the Slovenian language.”

Russian Orthodox Church to this day he sacredly preserves the Church Slavonic language as the language of his worship. Consequently, the Russian language, despite all the trials, is not in danger of decline. The high cultural standard maintained by the Church Slavonic language will help preserve the beauty, richness and strength of the Russian language and native literature.