ABSTRACT
Slavic Christianity is unthinkable without the contributions of two brothers from Thessalonica, Constantine-Cyril and Methodius. While Slavic peoples in Central Europe had been included in the missionary activity of Rome and the Franks before their arrival, Constantine-Cyril and Methodius broadened the scope of evangelization and were instrumental in creating a Slavic Christian culture that stretched eastwards from the Frankish border to the Byzantine Empire and north into present-day Russia. The Christianity which they helped to build would be largely Eastern Orthodox and subject to the patriarchate of Constantinople, even though linguistic and liturgical traces were preserved among the Slavs who adopted the Latin Catholic observance and accepted Rome as their ecclesiastical center. The brothers took up their mission during the troubled ninth century when the Franks, Rome, and Constantinople were vying for political and religious dominance in Europe. It is a testimony to their nobility of character that they managed to stay fixed on the primary task of enabling Christians to worship in Slavonic in territories where the three political rivals actively fought for supremacy.
