St. Cyril was a Byzantine linguist, teacher, scholar and missionary who preached Christianity to the Slavik people in Moravia (modern day Czech Republic and Slovakia) with his brother Methodius during the 9th century. He created the Glagolitic alphabet, which came before the Cyrillic alphabet (named after him). Inorder to facilitate his preaching to the Slavs, Cyril invented, with help from his brother, the Glagolitic script. This alphabet used some letters from Hebrew and Greek cursive writing to accurately capture the unique sounds of the Slavic language. They created the script in order to make translation of the Liturgy of John Chrysostom, since the Slavic language had no written form previously. He not only spread the Christian religion, but the art and culture of the Byzantine empire into central Europe. St. Cyril died in Rome in 867, when on a mission to get the Pope’s approval for his work in central Europe and to have Slav disciples ordained. He was buried in the shrine of San Clemente in the Rome.
