METHODIOS
Missionary to the
Slavs and saint; born Thessalonike ca.815, died 6 April 885; feastday 6 April. His baptismal name was perhaps Michael.The brother of
Constantine the Philosopher, Methodios began his career as an administrator, serving as 'archon' of a "Slavic principality" in Macedonia.About 850 he abandoned his wife and withdrew to Mt.Olympos in Bithynia, where he eventually became 'hegoumenos' of the "Polychron" (= Greek Polychronios?) monastery and perhaps was ordained a priest.
He may have accompanied Constantine on his trip to Khazaria in 861.
Emperor Michael III sent Methodios and Constantine to Moravia in 863. The extent to which Methodios helped Constantine create the Glagolitic alphabet and translate Greek texts into Church Slavonic is unclear.
He journeyed with Constantine to Rome in 867, and in 869 Pope Hadrian II consecrated him bishop.
Returning to Pannonia and Moravia in 870, Methodios was arrested by the Franks, tried, and imprisoned in Swabia. After being released in 873, he worked hard to organize a native church in Moravia, despite pressure from the Franks who forced him to go to Rome in 879 to defend his orthodoxy.
He returned to Morabia in 882 via Constantinople, where he obtained support for his efforts from Photios.
According to his 'Life' probably written by Kliment of Ohrid, in 884 he completed translating the Bible.
Other translations attributed to him after Constantine's death include "patristic books", the 'Synagoge of 50 Titles' of John III Scholastikos, and a 'kanon' for the office of St.Demetrios.
The many liturgical works available in Church Slavonic after his death, including the Triodion, Heirologion, and Oktoechos, may have been translated under his direction. He may also have composed Constantine's vita.
P.A.Hollingsworth,
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991), vol.2