emergence Slavic writing turns 1155 years old. In 863, according to official version, the brothers Cyril (in the world Constantine the Philosopher, born in 826-827) and Methodius (worldly name unknown, presumably Michael, born before 820) created the basis of the modern Cyrillic alphabet.
The acquisition of written language by the Slavic peoples had the same historical and geopolitical significance as the discovery of America.
In the middle of the first millennium A.D. e. Slavs settled vast territories in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. Their neighbors in the south were Greece, Italy, Byzantium - a kind of cultural standards of human civilization.
Young Slavic "barbarians" constantly violated the borders of their southern neighbors. To curb them, Rome and Byzantium began to attempt to convert the "barbarians" to the Christian faith, subordinating their daughter churches to the main one - Latin in Rome, Greek in Constantinople. Missionaries were sent to the "barbarians". Among the envoys of the church, no doubt, there were many who sincerely and confidently fulfilled their spiritual duty, and the Slavs themselves, living in close contact with the European medieval world, were increasingly inclined to the need to enter the bosom of the Christian church. At the beginning of the 9th century, the Slavs began to actively adopt Christianity.
And then a new challenge arose. How to make available to new converts a huge layer of world Christian culture - sacred writings, prayers, epistles of the apostles, the works of the church fathers? The Slavic language, differing in dialects, remained the same for a long time: everyone understood each other perfectly. However, the Slavs did not yet have a written language. “Before, the Slavs, when they were pagans, did not have letters,” says the Tale of the Chernorizet Khrabr “On Letters” - but [counted] and guessed with the help of features and cuts. However, in trade transactions, when accounting for the economy, or when it was necessary to accurately convey a message, it was unlikely that “devils and cuts” were enough. There was a need to create Slavic writing.
“When [the Slavs] were baptized,” said the Chernoryets Khrabr, “they tried to write down Slavic speech in Roman [Latin] and Greek letters without order.” These experiments have partially survived to this day: the main prayers that sound in Slavic, but were written in Latin letters in the 10th century, are common among Western Slavs. Or another interesting monument - documents in which Bulgarian texts are written in Greek letters, moreover, from those times when the Bulgarians spoke the Turkic language (later the Bulgarians will speak Slavic).
And yet, neither the Latin nor the Greek alphabets corresponded to the sound palette of the Slavic language. Words, the sound of which cannot be correctly conveyed in Greek or Latin letters, were already cited by the Chernoryets Brave: belly, church, aspiration, youth, language, and others. But there was another side of the problem - the political one. Latin missionaries did not at all seek to make the new faith understandable to believers. There was a widespread belief in the Roman Church that there were “only three languages in which it is fitting to praise God with the help of (special) scripts: Hebrew, Greek and Latin.” In addition, Rome firmly adhered to the position that the “secret” of Christian teaching should be known only to the clergy, and ordinary Christians only need very few specially processed texts - the very beginnings of Christian knowledge.
In Byzantium, they looked at all this, apparently, in a slightly different way, here they began to think about the creation of Slavic letters. “My grandfather, and my father, and many others looked for them and did not find them,” Emperor Michael III will say to the future creator of the Slavic alphabet Constantine the Philosopher. It was Konstantin he called when, in the early 860s, an embassy from Moravia (part of the territory of modern Czech Republic) came to Constantinople. The tops of the Moravian society had already adopted Christianity three decades ago, but the Germanic church was active among them. Apparently, trying to gain complete independence, the Moravian prince Rostislav asked "the teacher to tell us the right faith in our language ...".
“No one can do this, only you,” the Caesar admonished Constantine the Philosopher. This difficult, honorable mission simultaneously fell on the shoulders of his brother, hegumen (rector) of the Orthodox monastery of Methodius. “You are Thessaloniki, and the Thessalonians all speak pure Slavic” - was another argument of the emperor.
Cyril and Methodius, two brothers, really came from the Greek city of Thessalonica (its modern name is Thessaloniki) in northern Greece. South Slavs lived in the neighborhood, and for the inhabitants of Thessalonica Slavic, apparently, has become a second language of communication.
Constantine and Methodius were born into a large wealthy family with seven children. She belonged to a noble Greek family: the head of the family named Leo was revered as an important person in the city. Konstantin grew up younger. As a seven-year-old child (as his “Life” tells), he saw “ prophetic dream”: he had to choose his wife from all the girls in the city. And he pointed to the most beautiful: "her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom." The phenomenal memory and excellent abilities of the boy - in teaching he excelled everyone - amazed those around him.
It is not surprising that, having heard about the special giftedness of the children of the Thessalonica nobleman, the ruler of the Caesar called them to Constantinople. Here they received an excellent education. With knowledge and wisdom, Konstantin earned himself honor, respect and the nickname "Philosopher". He became famous for many of his verbal victories: in discussions with carriers of heresies, at a dispute in Khazaria, where he defended the Christian faith, knowledge of many languages and reading ancient inscriptions. In Chersonese, in a flooded church, Constantine discovered the relics of St. Clement, and through his efforts they were transferred to Rome.
Brother Methodius often accompanied the Philosopher and helped him in his affairs. But the brothers received world fame and grateful gratitude from their descendants by creating the Slavic alphabet and translating sacred books into the Slavic language. Great work, which played an epochal role in the formation of the Slavic peoples.
However, many researchers rightly believe that work on the creation of the Slavic script in Byzantium began to work, apparently, long before the arrival of the Moravian embassy. And here's why: both the creation of an alphabet that accurately reflects the sound composition of the Slavic language, and the translation into Slavonic of the Gospel - a complex, multi-layered, internally rhythmic literary work that requires careful and adequate selection of words - is a colossal work. To fulfill it, even Constantine the Philosopher and his brother Methodius "with his henchmen" would need more than one year. Therefore, it is natural to assume that it was precisely this work that the brothers were doing back in the 50s of the 9th century in a monastery on Olympus (in Asia Minor on the coast of the Sea of Marmara), where, according to the Life of Constantine, they constantly prayed to God, “engaging in just books."
And in 864, Constantine the Philosopher and Methodius were already received with great honors in Moravia. They brought here the Slavic alphabet and the Gospel translated into Slavic. But there was still work to be done. Students were assigned to help the brothers and to train with them. “And soon (Konstantin) translated the entire church order and taught them both morning, and hours, and Mass, and Vespers, and Compline, and secret prayer.”
The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years. The philosopher, already suffering from a serious illness, 50 days before his death, "put on a holy monastic image and ... gave himself the name Cyril ...". When he died in 869, he was 42 years old. Cyril died and was buried in Rome.
The eldest of the brothers, Methodius, continued the work they started. According to the "Life of Methodius", "... having planted shorthand writers from his students, he quickly and completely translated all the books (biblical), except for the Maccabees, from Greek into Slavic." The time devoted to this work is indicated as incredible - six or eight months. Methodius died in 885.
Monument to St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius in Samara
Photo by V. Surkov
Appearance sacred books in the Slavic language had a powerful resonance in the world. All well-known medieval sources that responded to this event report how "some people began to blaspheme Slavic books", arguing that "no nation should have its own alphabet, except for Jews, Greeks and Latins." Even the Pope intervened in the dispute, grateful to the brothers who brought the relics of St. Clement to Rome. Although the translation into a non-canonized Slavic language was contrary to the principles of the Latin Church, the pope, nevertheless, did not condemn the detractors, saying, allegedly, quoting Scripture, like this: "Let all peoples praise God."
Cyril and Methodius, having created the Slavic alphabet, translated almost all the most important church books and prayers into the Slavic language. But not one Slavic alphabet has survived to this day, but two: Glagolitic and Cyrillic. Both existed in the IX-X centuries. In both, to convey sounds reflecting the features of the Slavic language, special signs were introduced, and not combinations of two or three main ones, as was practiced in the alphabets of Western European peoples. The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets almost coincide in letters. The order of the letters is also almost the same.
The merits of Cyril and Methodius in the history of culture are enormous. Firstly, they developed the first ordered Slavic alphabet and this marked the beginning of the widespread development of Slavic writing. Secondly, many books were translated from Greek, which was the beginning of the formation of Old Slavonic literary language and Slavic book business. There is evidence that Cyril created, in addition, original works. Thirdly, 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. In the course of all their activities in Moravia and Pannonia, Cyril and Methodius, in addition, waged an unceasing selfless struggle against the attempts of the German Catholic clergy to ban the Slavic alphabet and books. Fourthly: Cyril and Methodius were the founders of the first literary and written language of the Slavs - the Old 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.
Finally, when evaluating the educational activities of the Thessalonica brothers, it should be borne in mind that they did not engage in the Christianization of the population as such (although they contributed to it), because Moravia was already a Christian state by the time they arrived. Cyril and Methodius, having compiled the alphabet, translating from Greek, teaching literacy and familiarizing the local population with Christian and encyclopedic literature rich in content and forms, were precisely the teachers of the Slavic peoples.
Slavic monuments of the X-XI centuries that have come down to us. testify that, starting from the era of Cyril and Methodius, for three centuries the Slavs used, in principle, a single literary language with a number of local variants. The Slavic language world was rather uniform when compared with the modern one. Thus, Cyril and Methodius created an international, inter-Slavic language.
In the 10th century, Bulgaria became the center for the dissemination of Slavic writing and books. It is from here that the Slavic letter and slavic book come to the Russian land. The oldest Slavic written monuments that have survived to this day are written not by one, but by two varieties of Slavic writing. These are two alphabets that existed at the same time: CYRILLIC(by the name of Cyril) and VERB(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 did 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. The disciples of Methodius 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 letters in order to continue the work of spreading the Slavic script.
Adherents of the second hypothesis believe that Cyril and Methodius were the authors of the Glagolitic alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet appeared already in Bulgaria as a result of the activities of their students.
The question of the ratio of the alphabets is also complicated by the fact that not a single source that tells about the activities of the Solun brothers contains examples of the writing system that they developed. The first inscriptions in Cyrillic and Glagolitic that have come down to 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 colloquial Slavs of the 9th century, but a language specially created for the translation of Christian literature and the creation of their own Slavic religious works. It differed from the living spoken language of that time, but was understandable to everyone who spoke the 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 Old Slavonic language falls into 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: a living spoken language Eastern Slavs- Old Russian and literary written language - Old Church Slavonic.
What were the first Slavic alphabets? 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 arranged in the same alphabet. But the style (image) of the letters is different.
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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 form to the Cyrillic alphabet. The Glagolitic alphabet was used among the Slavs in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Croatia and Dalmatia it existed until the 17th century. But the simpler Cyrillic replaced the Glagolitic in the east and south, and in the west it was replaced by the Latin alphabet.
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. It was the uncial that formed the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, 26 letters were borrowed from it. Oh, and this alphabet was complicated, if we compare it with our modern alphabet!
The letter "H" (ours) was written as "N", and the letter "I" (like) as "H". And several identical sounds were indicated by two different letters. So the sound "Z" was transmitted by the letters "Earth" and "Zelo", the sound "I" - the letters "Izhe" "I", the sound "O" - "He" "Omega", two letters "Firt" and "Fita" gave "F" sound. There were letters to designate 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 some it conveyed the sound "I". Four letters for the Cyrillic alphabet were created from the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These letters denoted hissing sounds that did not exist in Greek. These are the letters "Worm", "Tsy", "Sha" and "Scha" for the sounds "Ch, C, Sh, Shch". Finally, several letters were created individually - “Buki”, “Live”, “Er”, “Ery”, “Yer”, “Yat”, “Yus small” and “Yus big”. The table shows that each Cyrillic letter had its own name, some of them formed interesting semantic rows. The students memorized the alphabet like this: Az Buki Vedi - I know the letters, i.e. I know the Verb Good Is; Kako People Think, etc.
On the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, many modern Slavic alphabets were created, while the Glagolitic alphabet was gradually replaced and became a “dead” alphabet, from which none of the modern writing systems “grew”.
Koloskova Kristina
The presentation was created on the topic: "Creators of the Slavic alphabet: Cyril and Methodius" Purpose: to involve students in an independent search for information, the development of students' creative abilities.
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Cyril and Methodius. The work was done by a student of 4 "a" class MOU " high school No. 11, Kimry, Tver Region Koloskova Christina
"And native Rus' will glorify the Holy Apostles of the Slavs"
Page I “In the beginning was the word…” Cyril and Methodius Cyril and Methodius, Slavic educators, creators of the Slavic alphabet, preachers of Christianity, the first translators of liturgical books from Greek into Slavonic. Cyril (before becoming a monk in 869 - Constantine) (827 - 02/14/869) and his older brother Methodius (815 - 04/06/885) were born in Thessalonica in the family of a military leader. The boys' mother was Greek, and their father was Bulgarian, so from childhood they had two native languages - Greek and Slavic. The characters of the brothers were very similar. Both read a lot, loved to study.
Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, Enlighteners of the Slavs. In 863-866, the brothers were sent to Great Moravia to present the Christian teaching in a language understandable to the Slavs. Great teachers translated books Holy Scripture, based on the Eastern Bulgarian dialects, and created a special alphabet - Glagolitic - for their texts. The activities of Cyril and Methodius had a common Slavic significance and influenced the formation of many Slavic literary languages.
Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril (827 - 869), nicknamed the Philosopher, Slovenian teacher. When Konstantin was 7 years old, he saw a prophetic dream: “The father gathered all the beautiful girls of Thessalonica and ordered to choose one of them as his wife. After examining everyone, Konstantin chose the most beautiful; her name was Sophia (Greek wisdom). So even in childhood, he became engaged to wisdom: for him, knowledge, books became the meaning of his whole life. Constantine received an excellent education at the imperial court in the capital of Byzantium - Constantinople. He quickly learned grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, knew 22 languages. Interest in the sciences, perseverance in learning, diligence - all this made him one of the most educated people in Byzantium. It is no coincidence that he was called the Philosopher for his great wisdom. Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril
Methodius of Moravia Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius Methodius entered the military service. For 10 years he was the ruler of one of the regions inhabited by Slavs. Around 852, he took monastic vows, renouncing the rank of archbishop, and became hegumen of the monastery. Polychron on the Asian coast of the Sea of Marmara. In Moravia, he was imprisoned for two and a half years, in severe frost they dragged him through the snow. The Enlightener did not renounce serving the Slavs, and in 874 he was released by John VIII and restored to the rights of a bishopric. Pope John VIII forbade Methodius to celebrate the Liturgy in the Slavic language, but Methodius, visiting Rome in 880, succeeded in lifting the ban. In 882-884 he lived in Byzantium. In the middle of 884 Methodius returned to Moravia and was busy translating the Bible into Slavonic.
Glagolitic is one of the first (along with Cyrillic) Slavic alphabets. It is assumed that it was the Glagolitic alphabet that was created by the Slavic educator St. Konstantin (Kirill) Philosopher for recording church texts in Slavonic. Glagolitic
The Old Slavonic alphabet was compiled by the scientist Cyril and his brother Methodius at the request of the Moravian princes. That's what it's called - Cyrillic. This is the Slavic alphabet, it has 43 letters (19 vowels). Each has its own name, similar to ordinary words: A - az, B - beeches, C - lead, G - verb, D - good, F - live, Z - earth and so on. Alphabet - the name itself is formed from the name of the first two letters. In Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet became widespread after the adoption of Christianity (988). The Slavic alphabet turned out to be perfectly adapted to the exact transmission of sounds Old Russian language. This alphabet is the basis of our alphabet. Cyrillic
In 863, the word of God sounded in the Moravian cities and villages in their native, Slavic language, letters and secular books were created. Slavic chronicle writing began. The Soloun brothers devoted their entire lives to teaching, knowledge, and serving the Slavs. They did not attach much importance to either wealth, or honors, or fame, or career. The younger one, Konstantin, read a lot, meditated, wrote sermons, and the older one, Methodius, was more of an organizer. Konstantin translated from Greek and Latin into Slavonic, wrote, having created the alphabet, in Slavonic, Methodius - "published" books, led the school of students. Konstantin was not destined to return to his homeland. When they arrived in Rome, he fell seriously ill, took tonsure, received the name Cyril, and died a few hours later. With this name, he remained to live in the bright memory of his descendants. Buried in Rome. The beginning of the Slavic chronicle.
The spread of writing in Rus' Ancient Rus' read letters and books. Historians and archaeologists believe that the total number of handwritten books before the 14th century was approximately 100,000 copies. After the adoption of Christianity in Rus' - in 988 - writing began to spread faster. The liturgical books were translated into Old Church Slavonic. Russian scribes rewrote these books, adding features of their native language to them. Thus, the Old Russian literary language was gradually created, the works of Old Russian authors appeared, (unfortunately, often unnamed) - "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "Instructions of Vladimir Monomakh", "The Life of Alexander Nevsky" and many others.
Yaroslav the Wise Grand Duke Yaroslav “loved books, read them often both at night and during the day. And he gathered many scribes and they translated from Greek into Slavic and they wrote many books ”(Chronicle of 1037) Among these books were chronicles written by monks, old and young, secular people, these are “lives”, historical songs, “teachings” , "messages". Yaroslav the Wise
“They teach the alphabet in the whole hut they shout” (V.I. Dal “ Dictionary living Great Russian language") V.I. Dal There were no textbooks in Ancient Rus' yet, education was based on church books, one had to memorize huge texts-psalms - instructive chants. The names of the letters were learned by heart. When learning to read, the letters of the first syllable were first called, then this syllable was pronounced; then the letters of the second syllable were called, and the second syllable was pronounced, and so on, and only after that the syllables formed a whole word, for example BOOK: kako, ours, ilk - KNI, verb, az - GA. That's how hard it was to learn to read.
Page IV “The Revival of the Slavic Holiday” Macedonia Ohrid Monument to Cyril and Methodius Already in the 9th-10th centuries, the first traditions of glorification and veneration of the creators of Slavic writing began to emerge in the homeland of Cyril and Methodius. But soon the Roman Church began to oppose the Slavic language, calling it barbaric. Despite this, the names of Cyril and Methodius continued to live among the Slavic people, and in the middle of the XIV century they were officially ranked among the saints. In Russia it was different. The memory of the Enlightenment Slavs was already celebrated in the 11th century; here they were never considered heretics, that is, atheists. But still, only scientists were more interested in it. Broad festivities of the Slavic word began in Russia in the early 60s of the last century.
On the holiday of Slavic writing on May 24, 1992, in Moscow on Slavyanskaya Square, the grand opening of the monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius by the sculptor Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Klykov took place. Moscow. Slavyanskaya Square
Kyiv Odessa
Soloniki Mukachevo
Chelyabinsk Saratov The monument to Cyril and Methodius was opened on May 23, 2009. Sculptor Alexander Rozhnikov
On the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, near the Far Caves, a monument was erected to the creators of the Slavic alphabet Cyril and Methodius.
Monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius The holiday in honor of Cyril and Methodius is a public holiday in Russia (since 1991), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Republic of Macedonia. In Russia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, the holiday is celebrated on May 24; in Russia and Bulgaria it bears the name of the Day of Slavic Culture and Literature, in Macedonia - the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the holiday is celebrated on July 5th.
Thank you for your attention!
By the 9th century East Slavic tribes occupied vast territories on the great waterway "from the Varangians to the Greeks", i.e. territories from Lake Ilmen and the Zapadnaya Dvina basin to the Dnieper, as well as to the east (in the upper reaches of the Oka, Volga and Don) and to the west (in Volyn, Podolia and Galicia). All these tribes spoke closely related East Slavic dialects and were at different stages of economic and cultural development; on the basis of the linguistic community of the Eastern Slavs, the language of the Old Russian people was formed, which received its statehood in Kievan Rus.
The Old Russian language was unwritten. The emergence of Slavic writing is inextricably linked with the adoption of Christianity by the Slavs: liturgical texts that were understandable to the Slavs were necessary.
Consider the history of the creation of the first Slavic alphabet.
In 862 or 863, ambassadors from the Moravian prince Rostislav arrived at the Byzantine emperor Michael. They conveyed to the emperor a request to send missionaries to Moravia who could preach and carry out divine services in a language understandable to the Moravians. mother tongue instead of Latin German clergy. “Our people have abandoned paganism and adhere to the Christian law, but we do not have such a teacher who could instruct us in the Christian faith in our native language,” the ambassadors said. Emperor Michael and the Greek Patriarch Photius gladly received the ambassadors of Rostislav and sent the scientist Constantine the Philosopher and his older brother Methodius to Moravia. The brothers Constantine and Methodius were not chosen by chance: Methodius for a number of years was the ruler of the Slavic region in Byzantium, probably in the southeast, in Macedonia. The younger brother, Konstantin, was a man of great learning, he received an excellent education. In written sources, he is usually called "Philosopher". In addition, Constantine and Methodius were born in the city of Solun (now Thessaloniki, Greece), in the vicinity of which many Slavs lived. Many Greeks, including Constantine and Methodius, knew their language well.
Constantine was the compiler of the first Slavic alphabet - Glagolitic. None of the alphabets known to science was used as the basis for the graphics of the Glagolitic alphabet: Konstantin created it based on the sound composition of the Slavic language. In the Glagolitic one can partially find elements or letters similar to the letters of other alphabets of developed languages (Greek, Syriac, Coptic writing and other graphic systems), but it cannot be said that one of these alphabets is the basis of the Glagolitic script. The alphabet, compiled by Cyril - Konstantin, is original, author's and does not repeat any of the alphabets that existed at that time. The graphics of the Glagolitic were based on three figures: a cross, a circle and a triangle. The verb letter is uniform in style, it is rounded in shape. The main difference between the Glagolitic script and the previous writing systems attributed to the Slavs is that it perfectly accurately reflected the phonemic composition of the Slavic language and did not require the introduction or establishment of combinations of other letters to designate some specific Slavic phonemes.
The Glagolitic alphabet became widespread in Moravia and Pannonia, where the brothers carried out their missionary activities, but in Bulgaria, where the disciples of Constantine and Methodius went after their death, the Glagolitic alphabet did not take root. In Bulgaria, before the advent of the Slavic alphabet, the letters of the Greek alphabet were used to record Slavic speech. Therefore, “taking into account the specifics of the situation, the students of Constantine and Methodius adapted the Greek alphabet for recording Slavic speech. At the same time, to designate Slavic sounds ( W, SCH et al.), which were absent in Greek, the Glagolitic letters were taken with some changes in their style according to the type of angular and rectangular Greek uncial letters. This alphabet received its name - Cyrillic - by the name of the real creator of Slavic writing Cyril (Konstantin): with whom, if not with him, the name of the most common alphabet among the Slavs should be associated.
Manuscripts of Slavic translations of Constantine and Methodius, as well as their students, have not survived to our time. The oldest Slavic manuscripts date back to the 10th-11th centuries. Most of them (12 out of 18) are written in Glagolitic. These manuscripts are closest in origin to the translations of Constantine and Methodius and their students. The most famous of them are the Glagolitic gospels of Zografskoe, Mariinskoe, Assemanievo, the Cyrillic Savvin's book, the Supralskaya manuscript, the Hilandar leaflets. The language of these texts is called Old Church Slavonic.
Old Church Slavonic has never been a spoken, living language. It is impossible to identify it with the language of the ancient Slavs - the vocabulary, morphology and syntax of Old Slavonic translations largely reflect the features of the vocabulary, morphology and syntax of texts written in Greek, i.e. Slavic words follow the patterns on which Greek words were built. Being the first (known to us) written language of the Slavs, Old Slavonic for the Slavs became a model, model, ideal of the written language. And in the future, its structure was largely preserved already in the texts of the Church Slavonic language of various versions.
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. But the Slavic alphabet has an absolutely amazing origin. Thanks to a number of historical testimonies, 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 cultural factors. If the people are deprived of the right or opportunity to speak their native language, then this will be the most severe blow to their native culture. If a person is deprived of books in his native language, then he will lose the most important treasures of his culture. An adult, for example, being abroad, probably will not forget his native language. But his children and grandchildren will have great difficulties in mastering the language of their parents and their people. The Russian emigration of the 20th century, based on their hard experience, to the question “What place do the native language and native literature occupy in the national culture?” gives a very unambiguous answer: "Paramount!".
Creation of the Slavic alphabet
The contemporaries and students of the first teachers of the Slavs compiled their lives in Church Slavonic. These biographies have been tested for authenticity for centuries, and to this day Slavists of all countries are recognized as the most important sources on the history of Slavic literature and culture. The best edition of the oldest lists of biographies of Cyril and Methodius, prepared jointly by Russian and Bulgarian scientists, was published in 1986. It contains lists of lives and laudatory words of Cyril and Methodius of the XII-XV centuries. The facsimile edition in this book of the most ancient lives of the Enlighteners of the Slavs gives it special significance. Facsimile - “accurately reproduced” (from Latin fac simile “do the same”). Reading the handwritten lives and words of praise to Cyril and Methodius, we penetrate deep into the centuries and approach the origins of the Slavic alphabet and culture.
In addition to hagiographic literature, the most interesting testimony of the ancient Bulgarian writer of the late 9th - early 10th century Chernorizet Khrabr, who wrote the first essay on the history of the creation of Slavic writing, has been preserved.
If you ask the Slavic literate people like this:
Who created the letters for you or translated the books,
Everyone knows that and, answering, they say:
Saint Constantine the Philosopher, named Cyril,
He created letters for us and translated books.
The birthplace 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 the main city of the region - Thessaloniki, or Thessalonica in Slavonic. 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 year of birth of each of the brothers is not exactly known. Researchers attribute the birth year of Methodius to 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 Photius of Constantinople - a connoisseur of ancient culture, the creator of a unique bibliographic code known as the Myriobiblion - and Leo Grammatik - a man who surprising compatriots and foreigners with his deep learning, a connoisseur of mathematics, astronomy and mechanics.
In the Life of Constantine, his education is reported: “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 - rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music and other Hellenic sciences. And so he studied all this, as no one else studied these sciences. The ancient heritage and all modern secular science were considered by the teachers of Constantine to be an indispensable preliminary stage to the comprehension of the highest wisdom - Theology.
This also corresponded to the ancient church Christian scientific tradition: the famous fathers of the Church of the 4th century, Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, before entering the church service, were educated in the best educational institutions 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 St. Cyril contributed not only to the development of an original Slavic culture, but was also an important factor in the development of young Slavic nations, their revival and liberation from spiritual guardianship, turning into oppression, foreign neighbors. What Saints Cyril and Methodius did served as the foundation on which the beautiful building of the current Slavic culture was built, which has taken its place of honor in the world culture of mankind ”Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov). From the speech “Equal to the Apostles”, delivered on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the death of St. Cyril. Hagiographic literature, which has preserved for us precious information about life and scientific activity brothers of Thessalonica, assigned to Constantine the name of Filos (i.e., “lover of wisdom”). In this regard, of particular interest is an episode from childhood, the future enlightener of the Slavs. As a seven-year-old boy, Konstantin had a dream that he told his father and mother. The stratig (head of the region), having gathered all the girls of Thessalonica, said to him: “Choose for yourself from among them, whoever you want, as a wife, to help (you) and your peer.” “But I,” Konstantin said, “having examined and examined them all, I saw one more beautiful than all, with a radiant face, adorned with golden necklaces and pearls and all beauty, her name was Sophia, that is, Wisdom, and her (I) chose." After graduating from the course of sciences, having taken the department of philosophy in the Magnavra high school Constantinople, where he had previously studied himself, Constantine the Philosopher also performed the duties of the patriarchal librarian. And, in the "books of diligence," he more and more rose from bookish wisdom to the highest Wisdom, preparing for a great mission - the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples.
Epochal significance for the entire Slavic world was the embassy of Constantine to Moravia in 863. The Moravian prince Rostislav asked the Byzantine emperor Michael III to send preachers who knew the Slavic language to him: “Our land is baptized, but we do not have a teacher who would instruct and teach us, and who explained the holy books. For we know neither Greek nor Latin; some teach us in this way, and others in another way, because of this we do not know either the outline of the letters or their meaning. And send us teachers who could tell about book words and their meaning.
“To teach without the alphabet and without books is like writing a conversation on the water,” Constantine the Philosopher answered Emperor Michael when he invited him to go on an educational mission to the Moravian Christians. Konstantin the Philosopher compiled the alphabet for the Slavs and, together with his brother, translated the first texts from the Gospel and the 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 Slavic enlightenment. The Gospel of John stands out from among all biblical books with an 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 Slavonic contained examples of a whole range of literary genres. For example, biblical texts included historical and biographical genres, monologues and dialogues, as well as samples of the most exquisite poetry. The Slavic liturgical texts that came out from the pen of the first teachers were mostly intended for chanting or even for choral performance, and thereby served to develop the musical culture of the Slavs. The first translations of patristic texts (creations of the Holy Fathers) into Slavonic included works of a philosophical nature. The very first ecclesiastical 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 hand, convey all the literary virtues and subtleties of the Greek originals, is truly a task for several generations. But historical sources testify that this huge philological work was done by the Thessalonica brothers and their direct students in an amazingly short term. 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 samples 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 Slavonic writing 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 addition immediately in those mature, developed forms that were developed in the Greek text of the originals as a result of centuries of literary development ".
Maybe someone before Cyril and Methodius made experiments on the creation of Slavic writing, but there are only hypotheses on this score. And numerous historical sources testify specifically to Cyril and Methodius as the creators of the Slavic alphabet, writing and bookishness. However, the history of the creation of Slavic writing has one very interesting riddle. In the 9th century, the Slavs appeared almost simultaneously two writing systems: one was called Glagolitic, and the other - Cyrillic. Which alphabet - Cyrillic or Glagolitic - was invented by Constantine the Philosopher? Many scholars tend 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 the most widespread, which became the basis of the modern Russian alphabet. But no matter how later these questions are 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 in the formation of a common 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 Konstantin the Philosopher” in the book depository of the Hilendar (Serbian) monastery on Athos. In it, Konstantin the Philosopher addresses all Slavic peoples: the whole people ... Behold, all of us, brethren of Slovenia, contemplating, speak the 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 to the Volga in the east, Slavic tribes settled, the names of which were conveyed by our "initial chronicle": Moravians, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Horutans, Glade, Drevlyans, Mazovshans, Pomeranians, Dregovichi, Polochans, Buzhans, Volhynians, Novgorodians, Dulebs, Tivertsy, Radimichi, Vyatichi. All of them spoke the “Slovenian language” and all received enlightenment 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, Cyril bequeathed to his brother: “You and I, like two oxen, led the same furrow. I am exhausted, but don’t you think to leave the work of teaching and retire again to the mountain (to the monastery).” Saint Methodius fulfilled the order of his brother and until the end of his earthly life worked on the translation of the Bible, liturgical books and church-legal collections. Methodius died in 885, leaving behind many successors who knew and loved Church Slavonic books.
“Translating a Byzantine text into Russian is a grateful and joyful work, because the modern translator is energetically assisted by his ancient predecessors; the historical fate of the Russian language opened it up to Byzantium-specific opportunities to link and intertwine words. In English or French, the same text can only be retold, recklessly sacrificing its verbal fabric, and even a German translation can only come close to the authentic warehouse of Hellenic ornateness at a respectful distance. The tradition of Russian culture embodied in the language is connected with the Byzantine heritage in a very tenacious, very real and concrete connection. We shouldn't forget about it."
The greatest merit of Cyril and Methodius before the Slavic world also consisted in the fact that they everywhere tried to leave their students - the successors of the cause of enlightenment of the Slavic peoples. Their disciples continued the Orthodox mission in Moravia and Panonnia, and through the next chain of successors, the Cyrillic and Methodian 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 services and schooling were all 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 of particular importance, because at that time the liturgical language was at the same time the language of literature. With the Baptism of Rus', books in the Slavic language began to spread very quickly in the Russian land. “In The Tale of Bygone Years, which is attentive to all the events of Russian culture, there are no names or dates associated with Russian writing proper. And this is undoubtedly because Cyril and Methodius were, in the minds of the scribes of Rus', the true creators of a single written language for all the Eastern and Southern Slavs. The Russian “Legend about translating books into the Slavic language”, placed in the “Tale of Bygone Years”, begins with the words: “There is one language Slovene”. Further in this "Tale" it is said: "But the Slovene language and Russian are one", - and a little lower it is repeated again: "... and the Slovene language is one"".
Currently, in Russian culture, the Church Slavonic language is 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 lies in the fact that it represents the entire history of the Russian language placed in one plane, for in Church Slavonic there are simultaneously functioning monuments dating back to the activities of the Slavic first teachers - St. Nestor, Metropolitan Hilarion, Cyril of Turov, St. Maxim Greek and beyond 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 “Foreword on the Usefulness of Church Books in the Russian Language”. Lomonosov: “The Russian language, in full strength, beauty and wealth, 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 bar supported by the Church Slavonic language will help preserve the beauty, richness and strength of the Russian language and native literature.
