The names of the holy brothers who created the Slavic alphabet. History of the Slavic alphabet

In the history of our country, many glorious dates. Many of them are confined to the events of ancient times. One of these memorable events, which lasted for many years, was the appearance of the Slavic script. Do you know the names of the holy brothers who created the Slavic alphabet? If not, then this article was written especially for you!

Who was that?

If you have listened to the teacher at the lessons of history, you can remember them for yourself. Yes, the names of the holy brothers who created the Slavic alphabet are Cyril and Methodius. These are Slavic preachers, whose role in world history is such that they were canonized not only by the Orthodox, but even by the Catholic Church. Moreover, references to their lives and activities are also found in the writings of Muslim leaders.

It is believed that Cyril (years of life - approximately 827-969) received his Orthodox name in Rome just 50 days before his death. All his life he was known to contemporaries as Constantine the Philosopher. Methodius (the years of life 820-885) was also baptized under a new name at the end of life. As it was called in reality, historians and theologians do not know, but they assume that originally the preacher was called Michael.

Cyril and Methodius (a photo of their recreated images is in the article) were siblings. In addition to them, there were eight boys in the family. Nothing is known about their future fate. In the light they appeared in Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki). At that time the city was part of Macedonia.

Childhood and youth

Methodius, although rarely mentioned in historical sources, was on military service. Moreover, for 10 years he was the manager of some area (most likely, Slavic), after which he left the ranks of the soldiers and went to the monastery of Olympus, which was in the territory of Asia Minor. Approximately in 860 he refused the rank of archbishop, became hegumen of the monastery Polychron, located on the shores of the Sea of Marmara.

Unlike Methodius, Cyril never differed in bodily health, but from the very early years discovered signs of an unusually keen mind. Michael-Methodius often had to protect and patronize his beloved younger brother, who could not properly stand up for himself. The brothers will stay together all their lives.

At the age of only 14, young Kirill was already fully absorbed in the revelations of Gregory the Theologian. The boy drew the attention of Emperor Michael III, after which he was taken to the court as a study companion for his son. Under the guidance of Photius, later a famous patriarch, as well as other experienced instructors, the young men comprehended the secrets of grammar and rhetoric, dialectics, astronomy and other sciences.

"Life" of Cyril shows that the theologian knew about a dozen of the most common languages then. He refused a prominent post at the imperial court, did not consent to a profitable marriage, preferring to become a librarian in the cathedral of Hagia Sophia. A little later he secretly goes to the monastery, and after returning from it teaches sophistry in universities. Then he received the nickname Philosopher, which will remain with him until the end of his days.

What is known from their biography?

The faith of Constantine (Cyril) was so great that in scientific debates he always triumphed over the iconoclast heretics. However, the emperor Constantine often sent a clever and experienced philosopher even to the Saracens (Muslims), where he also showed himself as a talented interlocutor who, in a theological dispute, can easily defeat the enemy with his own weapon.

We hope that you remember the names of the holy brothers who created the Slavic alphabet.

Getting started with ABC

In about 858, they started to go to the Khazars. In Korsun, the missionary monks have stopped for the purpose of in-depth study of Hebrew. Here they found the holy relics of the Clement of the Pope. Some of them took the brothers with them on a further journey. Alas, the missionaries did not succeed in achieving some significant successes among the Khazars, who universally professed Judaism. However, they nevertheless baptized about 200 Khazars, and also rescued from the captivity quite a few Greeks. Methodius went to Polychronium, becoming hegumen in a monastery, Cyril returned to Constantinople.

It was in the silence of some cell that the first prototype of the single Slavonic script was created: Cyril took as its basis the old Greek writing, simplifying and adding it a little. By the way, the Greek alphabet itself was borrowed from the Phoenicians who developed it in the seventh century BC. Thus, the creation of the Slavic alphabet is inseparably linked with the transformation of the Greek language.

What was before Cyril?

Most likely, before Cyril, our ancestors had a written language based on "features and cuts". Precise information has not been preserved, and therefore historians have to be content only with mentions in the works of contemporaries, who can not give much information. However, this problem is extremely ambiguous: there are still heated debates among philologists and historians, as the ancient Slavic script is a very complicated topic, in which "white spots" are thousands of times larger than more or less reliable facts.

Most likely, it was Cyril - the creator of the Slavic alphabet in its modern version.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic

If we have already begun to discuss the problem of the origin of Slavic writing in the form that is familiar to us today, we can not fail to mention the sharp and heated debate. It occurs between historians, linguists and archaeologists, for a decade now. The subject is not only the creation of the Slavic alphabet as such, but also a discussion of those of its variants that were circulated throughout the entire ancient Rus'.

It is a question of the fact that on the territory of all Ancient Rus at one time there were at once two systems of writing: the Cyrillic and Glagolitic we already know, of which few know today. Was there at that time some other, ancient Slavic alphabet? Everything is possible ... The difficulty in determining which of them was the original is the complete absence of reliable archaeological evidence.

Some studies were conducted by many Russian scientists (especially in the 19th century), but because of the extremely tumultuous history of our country, their results were completely lost. It is known only that the scientists of Tsarist Russia still believed that the Cyril and Methodius brothers were the developers of the Cyrillic alphabet. Briefly described theses are still found in the archives.

What kind of alphabet did Cyril create?

Scientists have not yet come to a common opinion about what Cyril invented: glagolitic or Cyrillic? Note that in the 10-11 centuries in Cyrillic there were 43 letters at once: 25 of them were borrowed from the old Greek alphabet. We can say that the rest came from the same place, but they were significantly modified so that they could transmit sounds more characteristic of the Slavic speech. This is characteristic of the creation of the Slavic alphabet: despite the artificial origin of many letters, it is based on an ancient language, which had the widest circulation in the ancient world.

The most ancient literary monuments

On the ruins of the Church of Simeon in Pereslavl (Bulgaria) there are inscriptions of the end of the ninth century. From the same series - records from the city of Dobruja, dated 943 year. In the mound, dating from the tenth century, a pitcher with the inscription "goruhsha" was found. There are also birch-bark Novgorod's letters of the 11th century. One can only assume how many such testimonies, which were written earlier, simply destroyed the time. Finally, the Ostromir Gospel is widely known, written between 1056 and 1057 (from Novgorod).

Where did the Cyrillic alphabet come from?

Despite numerous studies, scientists have not been able to find out where this writing came from. Many of them believe that she was created by Cyril, since there are no more or less intelligible evidence of her ancient origin. Others believe that Cyril only developed the Glagolitic, and the Slavic alphabet of the Cyrillic alphabet originates somewhere in Ancient Bulgaria.

The last assumption is not without foundation. The matter is that in 864-865 Bulgarians accept orthodoxy, and there Clement Ohridski, who was one of the most eminent and talented pupils taught by Saint Cyril and Methodius, immediately goes there. He became the first Slav who accepted the high rank of bishop.

Some researchers consider it to be the developer of the Cyrillic script. But still most of the historians, theologians and ministers of the Church consider the creator of Constantine the Philosopher, that is, Saint Cyril. This opinion is very thorough, as many words, letters and phonetics our language borrowed from the Greeks. It is not surprising that if the natives of Macedonia really managed to systematize knowledge of the Slavic dialects, and then on the basis of this information to implement the creation of the Slavic alphabet, which turned out to be really native for us.

Opinions about the origin of the Glagolitic

Glagolitic is considered by many scientists as a form of the Latin alphabet, since phonetics and the meaning of letters are very similar to it. The differences lie in the somewhat more complex form of the latter. Perhaps this way of drawing came from the Samaritan language. In the 10th and 11th centuries it was actively used by the inhabitants of Moravia, Dalmatia, and in Bulgaria itself the Glagolitic was actively used. What can I say about Croatia, in which this alphabet was used up to the 18th century! As for the oldest written monuments, it is inscribed, then immediately comes to mind the Zograph Gospel, created in the late 10th century.

If there are any guesses about the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet, then all theories about the origin of the Glagolitic are based solely on opinions and assumptions, since there is not a single documentary evidence that could confirm or disprove at least one theory. Most likely, the history of the Slavic alphabet originates long before the 10th century, but so far such theories are not backed up.

A fairly large group of scientists, including I. Taylor, IV Yagich and others, stood to death: this alphabet was founded by the same Kirill on the basis of the Byzantine cursive technique! Domestic researchers in the pre-revolutionary period (AI Sobolevsky, II Sreznevsky, EF Karsky) promoted the theory that the Glagolitic originates in Moravia X century, where it was actively planted disciples of the ubiquitous Cyril. This group did not come to a common opinion about its creator, but they definitely guessed with the place of distribution.

The last statement is based on the fact that the local Catholic church began the persecution of the Glagoliticus precisely in Moravia, beyond which it was later used much longer. This persecution itself began because the new alphabet was suspiciously similar to the Byzantine one, which cast doubt on the "most ancient origin" of Catholicism itself. As you can see, the history of the Slavic alphabet is very complicated and confusing.

Some scholars even argued for the fact that the Glagolitic is nothing more than a sort of "cryptographic" form of Cyrillic. In the Soviet period, a widely spread version was that (in many respects for political reasons) that the Glagolitic is an ancient Slavic written language, on the basis of which (with an admixture of the Greek), the Cyrillic alphabet was created. Thus, Soviet scientists assumed that Cyril and Methodius (a photo of their images are in our article) only transformed the existing version of the writing. Modern research suggests that this is clearly not the case.

Parallel use of the alphabet

Up to the 12th century, both systems of writing were used everywhere. But due to the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet was much easier in outline, it soon replaced the "competitor". Whatever it was, but today more than 70 languages around the world are built on the basis of Cyril's invention. However, in some of them (including Russian) you can still see traces of the Glagolitic.

Many scientists believe that the latter has died out artificially. Say, it purposely forbade the creators of the Slavic alphabet, destroying the books written on it. Most likely, it is not so. It is enough to look at the ancient texts written in Cyrillic and Glagolitic. In the first case, almost any representative of the Slavic people can easily understand even a part of the words, even if the spelling of the Slavonic alphabet was used (in many respects it is the same ancient Greek language).

In the case of the Glagolitic, it can be confidently asserted that all subjects will not be able to identify a single letter: style and outline are so complicated that it is almost impossible to understand. Simply put, she certainly was defeated just because of the complexity of the outline. In principle, the same is said about the official version.

Perhaps Methodius is the creator of the Slavic alphabet of this model? Most likely, it is not so. The memoirs of contemporaries say that only Kirill could create a new writing system (even if based on the Greek one). Methodius was an excellent organizer, but without his brother, he could hardly have done something like that.

What books were translated into the new writing system?

Whoever created the Cyrillic alphabet and the Glagolitic language, its main goal was for sure the enlightenment and conversion of all Slavic peoples into a single Orthodox faith. In any case, Saint Cyril and Methodius first translated the Gospel Aprakos, the Apostle-aprakos, the Psalter. Most likely, they also translated the Cyrillic and Paremiynik.

As the "Life" testifies, Cyril began translating Holy Scripture also into Old Bulgarian. In general, everything is simple: any enlightened clergyman "on the ground" aspired first of all to translate into understandable and accessible writing, especially sacred books, in order to make the faith more accessible. Incidentally, the aforementioned Church Slavic alphabet probably has nothing to do with the brothers, since it was clearly created in the Slavic churches.

Transformation of Cyrillic script and speech

Some "especially gifted" people often say that the Russian language has remained unchanged for hundreds of years, and now it is artificially distorted and spoiled. Of course, a sharp increase in the number of English terms that have quite distinct synonyms in our language is not a very good thing.

But here is a phrase spoken about in the 10th century (in modern transcription, of course): "Oh Russian zelmya already behind the Shelter". Do you understand everything? Is that the combination of "Russian land". Meanwhile, in this passage the following is literally said: "The Russian land disappeared behind the hill", "The Russian land disappeared, as if covered by a sheath". In fact, our ancestors until very recently, only before Peter I, spoke a language that we now understand with difficulty. Add to this the fact that many old letters of the Slavonic alphabet do not have a transcription to modern language at all!

And all this is due to the fact that the Russian language is beautifully modified, rapidly changing under the influence of environmental factors, but it remains a qualitative and understandable means of verbal and written communication. However, about the same can be said about any naming, which today communicates at least three or four million people around the world.

conclusions

Remember that the inability of language and writing to absorb and assimilate new words and concepts indicates his death. In Latin today is spoken by not one million medics, biologists and lawyers, but he is dead. It does not change, new rules do not appear in it.

Whatever the creators of the Slavic alphabet, their merit is the ingenious written system, each letter of which originally had a multiple meaning, possessing a simple and understandable inscription. In addition, it is this writing that has stood the test for centuries, now actively changing and continuing to serve as a means of communication for millions of people around the world.

Summing up, it should be said that Cyril and Methodius are not only the names of the holy brothers who created the Slavic alphabet, but the names of those outstanding thinkers who really were able to unite the Slavic peoples, giving them a common writing system.