Mission of Cyril and Methodius
Slavic writing is born: an alphabet and the first books
The Byzantine missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius arrived in Great Moravia to preach in the Slavic tongue. The alphabet they devised and the liturgical books they translated laid the foundations of Slavic literacy and literature.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 9th century
Did you know
Cyrillic is a distant descendant of the Phoenician alphabet: Phoenician gave rise to Greek, and Greek to the letters created almost 2,000 years later.
According to the chronicle, the Varangians were invited to Rus' in 862, and in 863 Cyril and Methodius set out for Moravia with a Slavic alphabet.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 862 Calling of the Varangians — 1 year earlier
- 882 Oleg takes Kiev — 19 years later
Africa
- 859 Fatima al-Fihri founds al-Qarawiyyin — 4 years earlier
Asia
- 868 The Diamond Sutra is printed — 5 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles the Bald (aged 40)
- Rurik (aged 33)
- Oleg the Wise (aged 18)
- Alfred the Great (aged 14)