CONSTANTINE THE PHILOSOPHER (monastic name Cyril)

 

Missionary to the Slavs and saint; born Thessalonike 826/7, died Rome 14 February 869; feastday 14 February.

Constantine and his brother Methodios were sons of the droungarios Leo and Maria, who may have been a Slav.

Displaying remarkable intelligence as a youth (he reputedly memorized the works of Gregory of Nanzianzos), ca.842 Constantine journeyed to Constantinople, where he gained the favor of the eunuch Theoktistos and received an advanced education; the tradition that he studied philosophy under Leo the Mathematician and Photios is, however, disputed (Lemerle, Humanism 185-91).

He was ordained priest and became 'chartophylax' of Hagia Sohia under Patriarch Ignatios, but was later appointed teacher of philosophy at the school of Magnaura.

His legendary erudition brought him prominence: he reportedly defined Philosophy in secular terms for Theoktistos (I.Sevcenko in 'For Roman Jakobson' [The Hague 1956] 449-57), bested John VII Grammatikos in a debate over Iconoclasm, learned Hebrew, disputed Muslim theologians at the caliph's court at Samarra, and debated Jewish spokesmen before the khagan of the Khazars.

In 863 Michael sent him and his brother Methodios to Moravia to comply with the request of Rastislav for missionaries. In preparation, Constantine devised the Glagolitic alphabet and a literary language, Church Slavonic, into which he translated numerous Greek works, including the so-called liturgy of John Chrysostom, selected daily offices, the Psalter, the New Testament, and perhaps Leo III's Ecloga.

In Moravia, Constantine and Methodios organized a native church using the local Slavic tongue, but under pressure from the Frankish clergy they journeyed to Rome in 867, where Constantine died, having been tonsured shortly before his death. He was buried in the Church of St.Clement, whose relics he had discovered in Cherson in 860 and brought to Rome.

His 9th-century Church Slavonic vita, perhaps composed by Methodios, draws heavily on Greek sources (I.Sevcenko in 'To Honor Roman Jakobson, vol.3 [The Hague 1967] 1817).

The existence of Constantine's original Greek works, especially concerned with St.Clement's relics, can only be deduced from references or surviving fragments in Church Slavonic sources.

 

P.A.Hollingsworth,

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991), vol.1, p.507