SS Cyril and Methodius
14th February

The next few years will be a time of profound change for the European Union. Several new countries, largely from the old eastern block, are poised to become full member states. There have been several siren voices raised warning of the ‘problems’ that this expansion will bring. As Christians we need to resist these profits of doom and look to the opportunities that this new development presents for greater unity among Christians.

The saints we celebrate tomorrow (not Valentine of course!), Cyril and Methodius, can be taken as our examples as we enter this new phase in our collective history. They were raised in the eastern tradition - Cyril teaching for a while in the imperial university in Constantinople - and were
sent after their ordination to bring the gospel to the people of Moravia, now in the present day Czech republic. They preached and worked then at the very heart of Europe. From there the followers of Methodius took the gospel to Bulgaria. And so it is the case that Slavs, Czechs, Croats and Bulgars all honour these two brothers, a devotion that unites both eastern and western Christians.

We should therefore not see the descendants of the people to whom Cyril and Methodius preached as a threat. They are our fellow Christians, although they may come from a different tradition to ourselves. We are united in praying to them as the patrons of Europe. May their prayers guide and guard Europe, whose patron saints they are, in the years ahead. P.D.