Christian Heritage – 1 (Small Village – 12)

Much of humanity has a Christian heritage, in some places of course more so than in others.  Anyone regularly given Roman Catholic Sunday reading regularly heard/hears names two of which are St. Cyril and St. Methodius.  Methodius, especially, is a rather memorable name, but why those two and others were/are in at all might never be defined.  It seems it’s just a case of they were to be recalled all of the time.  While digging around in the matters about that small village in a strange land, among the things learned was (perhaps) the why of at least those two names.

The information available isn’t that great (it was over a thousand years ago that they were active). And, making it even more remote, the places discussed may be familiar to some people descended from those places, but sure not all who have heard the mysterious names.  Reportedly, Cyril’s actual name was Constantine.  (That does makes sense in a way.)  He renamed himself Cyril before he died.  It’s the “Cyril” that is actually written in history (and life) as the Cyrillic alphabet.  The two were brothers out to take the Christian message to the Slavs in their own language. 

A lot of people use Cyrillic be they Christian or not, so that alone makes them known.  While they didn’t start out in the “strange land” per se, they were generally in that area eventually.  One can figure Christianity was carried there more than a thousand years ago in a language of the people and not any current governance, which has included different nations.  Christianity is fundamental, although at times it may have been rather underground.  Today it’s above ground and even small villages have their Christian churches with spires reaching into the skies.

Some things tend to be long-standing.