[Rank]
Ss. Cyrilli and Methodii Pont. Conf.;;Duplex;;3;;vide C4

[Rule]
vide C4;
9 lectiones

[Hymnus Vespera]
v. Sing, O ye faithful, sing two athlete brothers,
Welcomed above to thrones of light supernal;
Sing, of Slavonia's race, the glory twofold
And strength eternal.
_
One love these brethren bound in sweetest union,
By pity same their solitude is broken;
Forth they would hasten, unto many bearing
Life's blessed token.
_
Soon o'er Bulgaria, Moravia, Bohemia,
Light from the heavenly temple shineth glorious.
Once savage hordes, now countless flocks, to Peter
Lead they victorious.
_
Now with the well-earned crown your brow encircled,
Hear, blessèd ones, to suppliant tears bending;
Unto the Slavs, erst by your gifts enriched,
Protection lending.
_
Oh, may each gen'rous land, your aid imploring,
Keep bright the faith through every generation;
Rome to that land first gave, and ever guardeth,
Life and salvation.
_
Lord, of our race Creator and Redeemer,
By nature good, all goods on us bestowing,
Glory to thee through ages all, from grateful
Hearts overflowing.
Amen.

[Versum 1]
V. Let thy Priests be clothed with righteousness.
R. And let thy Saints shout for joy.

[Ant 1]
How beautiful * are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things, that say unto Sion thy God reigneth.

[Oratio]
Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast granted unto the Slavic peoples the knowledge of thy Name through the mean of thy blessed Confessors and Bishops Cyril and Methodius, grant that we, who here keep gladly the festival of the same thy Saints, may hereafter be gathered unto their company.
$Per Dominum.

[Lectio4]
!From the Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII
The brethren Cyril and Methodius were born in an honourable position at Thessalonica. As they advanced in years they went to Constantinople to study letters in the capital of the Eastern world. Both made quick progress, but most chiefly Cyril, who gained such learning that he was called for excellency the Philosopher. Methodius became a monk, but the Empress Theodora, on the recommendation of the Patriarch Ignatius, deemed Cyril worthy of receiving the task of teaching Christianity to the Khazar who dwelt beyond the Crimea. By the grace of God he so taught them that they laid aside their many superstitions and were joined to Jesus Christ. After properly establishing the new community of Christians Cyril hastened back to Constantinople, where he entered the monastery of Polychron, whither Methodius had already withdrawn himself. Rastilaw, Prince of Moravia, having heard tell of the good deeds beyond the Crimea, sent to Constantinople to the Emperor Michael III. to obtain some Gospel labourers. Cyril and Methodius were sent to him, and gladly received in Moravia, and applied themselves with such power and industry to the work of Christianising souls that it was not long before that nation also joyfully submitted to Jesus Christ. To this end Cyril found of great use the knowledge of the Slavonic language, which he had already acquired, and much effect was produced by the translation of holy Scripture which he made into the language of the people. Cyril and Methodius were the inventors of the alphabet in which the language of the Slavs is characteristically expressed, and for this reason they have been not unjustly termed the fathers of Slavonic literature.

[Lectio5]
Then the happy tidings of what they had done reached Rome, the Supreme Pontiff the holy Nicholas I. commanded these excellent brethren to come to Rome. When they started for Rome they brought with them the relics of the supreme Pontiff the holy Clement I. which Cyril had discovered at Cherson. On hearing of their approach Adrian II., who had succeeded to the Papacy upon the death of Nicholas, went forth to meet them accompanied by the clergy and people with every sign of honour. Then Cyril and Methodius gave to the Supreme Pontiff in the presence of the clergy an account of the Apostolic office which they had discharged in so holy and toilsome a manner. When it was made blame to them by some enviers that they had used the Slavonic language for the purposes of public worship, they stated their reasons with such clearness and force that the Pontiff and clergy praised and approved them. When they had both taken an oath that they would remain in the faith of blessed Peter and of the Roman Pontiffs, they were consecrated bishops by Adrian, but it was the Will of God that Cyril, old in grace rather than in years, should close his life at Rome. His dead body received a public funeral, and was laid in the tomb which Adrian had built for himself, but it was afterwards brought to St. Clement's and buried hard by the ashes of that martyr. As it was carried through the city with joyful psalm-singing, it seemed as though the procession were rather that of a triumph than that of a funeral, and that the Roman people were offering heavenly honour to some eminent saint. Methodius went back to Moravia, and there became from his whole soul a pattern to his flock, and from day to day more zealous in the service of Catholicism. He confirmed the Pannonians, the Bulgarians, and the Dalmatians in the Christian religion, and laboured much to bring the Corinthians to the worship of the one true God.

[Lectio6]
Methodius was again accused before John VIII., the successor of Adrian, of unsoundness in faith, and transgression of the traditions of the elders he was summoned to Rome, and there easily proved, in the presence of John and of some Bishops and clergy of the city, that he had himself always firmly held the Catholic faith, and had carefully taught it to others, and that as regarded the use of the Slavonic language for public worship, he had acted lawfully from certain reasons, and the permission of Pope Adrian, and in nowise contrary to holy writ. The Pontiff therefore in this matter concurred with Methodius, and confirmed even in writing his archepiscopal authority and his mission among the Slavs. Methodius therefore went back to Moravia and resumed more earnestly than before the task committed to him, for the which also he cheerfully suffered exile. He converted the Prince of the Bohemians and his wife, and spread the Christian name far and wide among that people. He carried the light of the Gospel into Poland, and according to some writers, after establishing the see of Leopolis, went into Muscovy properly so called and established the see of Kieff. At the last he returned into Moravia, and when he felt that he was about to go the way of all flesh he named his own successor, exhorted the clergy and people for the last time to good living, and then calmly departed that life which had been to him a path to heaven. As Rome had honoured Cyril in his death, so did Moravia honour Methodius. The festival of these Saints, which had long been observed among the Slav nations, the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII. ordered to be kept throughout the Universal Church with a special office and Mass.

[Hymnus Laudes]
v. O lovely light of fatherland!
Kind beacon to Slavonic race,
Brothers, all hail! your festival
With yearly canticle we grace.
_
Whom Rome applauding did receive,
As mother doth her sons embrace,
With pontiff's mitre deck your brows,
Gird with new strength, new toil to face.
_
To far-off barb'rous lands ye hie,
Knowledge and love of Christ to bear;
Whom error vain had long deceived,
Ye now with light replenish fair.
_
In hearts unfettered from the grasp
Of ill, doth heav'nly ardour glow;
Where horrid thorns the land devoured,
The flowers of holiness now grow.
_
At length in heav'nly court enthroned,
Ye rest securely; as we pray,
Oh, hear our cry: the Slavic race
Vouchsafe from God may never stray.
_
All wanderers plunged in errors dark
May Christ's one fold to union bring;
While emulous of ancestral deeds
May faith to new-born beauty spring.
_
Do thou, O blissful Trinity,
Inflame us with thy heav'nly fires,
And grant the sons may ever tread
The noble footsteps of their sires.
Amen.

[Versum 2]
V. The people will tell of the wisdom of the Saints.
R. And the congregation will show forth their praise.

[Ant 2]
In holiness * and righteousness before Him all the days of their life did they serve the Lord, and therefore the Lord God of Israel hath clothed them with a robe of glory.

[Ant 3]
These are * the holy men become the friends of God and made glorious by the preaching of divine truth; their tongues have become the keys of heaven.

[Lectio94]
Cyril and Methodius were brothers, born of a distinguished family in Thessalonica. The Emperor Michael III sent them into Moravia, where in a short time they brought the nation to the faith of Christ. When a favourable report of what they had done was brought to Rome, Pope St. Nicholas I ordered the brothers to come there. At Rome they were consecrated bishops by Adrian, Nicholas's successor. A short time later, however, Cyril died a most holy death in Rome, and Methodius went back to Moravia and increased his efforts on behalf of Catholicism. Moreover, he confirmed the Bohemians, the Pannonians, the Bulgarians and the Dalmatians in the Christian faith, and worked hard to bring the Corinthians to the worship of the one true God. He also brought the light of the Gospel to Poland and, as some writers say, founded the bishopric of Lemberg. Then he went to Muscovy properly so called and established the pontifical see of Kiev. At length he came back to Moravia, exhorted the clergy and people to virtue with his last words, and died peacefully. The feast day of Cyril and Methodius, already celebrated by the Slavic peoples, was extended to the universal Church by Leo XIII.
&teDeum