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John Baptist de la Salle was born in Rheims, France, on 30 April, 1651, the eldest son of Louis de la Salle and Nicolle de Moet de Brouillet. Inheriting the rank and fortune of his parents, he was seemingly destined to be set apart from the poverty-stricken masses. At the age of 16, still a young student, he succeeded an uncle as a canon of the cathedral in Rheims. This looked like the first step in a successful church career. He then studied at Saint Sulpice and the Sorbonne in Paris for the priesthood, and was ordained at the age of twenty-seven. Up to this point there was no indication as to what his future career would be, nor did he seem to have any idea himself. It was just then he was asked to cooperate in setting up some charitable schools in the city. This led to him being responsible for the teachers and even taking them into his own home to train them.  As he gradually became more involved in this work, he began to realize that God wanted him to set up a proper system for the education of the poor.

In a century which was in many respects so outstanding, there was the great scandal of widespread poverty, ignorance and moral depravity. As he had by now made the will of God the guiding principle of his life, he decided to devote himself entirely to this challenge. He resigned his canonry and gave away his inherited wealth in order to be on the same level as the teachers with whom he lived. This did not at all please his relatives nor his peers among the moneyed classes, but he had made up his mind. In 1684, he transformed his group of school teachers into a religious community under the name of Brothers of the Christian Schools, a religious institute which continues today under the same name and is spread all over the world. In order that the members should only devote themselves to teaching, he laid down that no brother could become a priest nor that any priest could join the congregation, a rule which is still observed.

The early years were marked by poverty and hardship, but these were cheerfully endured, thanks especially to the example of self-denial and extraordinary power of leadership shown by de la Salle himself. He had vowed that he would live on bread alone, if necessary, rather than abandon the work he had begun. While the training of his brothers was his first priority, in order to answer the demand for more trained teachers, he set up a teacher training college in Rheims in 1687, the first example of such an institution. In 1683, he moved to Paris and took over a school in St Sulpice and also made his headquarters there. It was not long before the brothers were teaching more than 1,000 students. He set up another training college with a charity school attached, and set up a ‘continuation’ school for young men already working. When the exiled English king, James II, entrusted 50 Irish boys to his care, he arranged for special courses to suit their needs. The success of his free schools, however, roused the hostility of some fee-paying schools which were losing students. Lawsuits were brought against de la Salle, and his schools were even attacked. He was condemned and not allowed to open further training colleges or free schools anywhere in Paris. Though excluded from the capital, the Brothers were now established in other centres such as Rouen, Avignon and Chartres, so the work continued. In fact, his teaching communities were now spreading all over France from as far north as Calais to Marseilles in the south.

In Rouen, he also set up two contrasting institutions. One was a fee-paying boarding school for the sons of the more prosperous, who wanted a better and more practical education, and the other was a reform school for boys in trouble with the law. Both proved very successful, and were forerunners of modern institutions of a similar kind.

De la Salle spent the last years of his life in Rouen, completing the organization of his institute, writing the Rule of the Brothers in its definitive form, and composing Meditations and a Method of Mental Prayer. He died on Good Friday, April 9th, 1718 in Saint-Yon, Rouen, at the age of 67. 

De la Salle’s pedagogical method is outlined in The Conduct of Schools, which he composed in 1695, and which is now considered an educational classic. He also wrote several school manuals, notably The Rules of Good Behaviour and The Duties of a Christian, which proved very popular and went through over a hundred editions.

John Baptist de la Salle is the patron of teachers. His great achievement was to have provided a system of education when the poor were grossly neglected. He did this not by setting up charity schools which had so often failed, but by creating an organised body of trained teachers. 

Currently, about 6,000 Brothers and 75,000 lay and religious colleagues worldwide serve as teachers, counsellors and guides to 900,000 students in over 1,000 educational institutions in 84 countries, carrying out the work of the founder into the 21st century.

He was canonised by Pope Leo XIII on May 24, 1900. His feast is celebrated in the Catholic Church on April 7, and at La Sallian institutions on May 15. He was proclaimed Patron Saint of Teachers in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.

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Saint Dominic Savio – Commentary on Isaiah 50:5-9; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7; John 12:24-26 Read Saint John Ogilvie – Readings »

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 St John Ogilvie SJ, Priest and Martyr (Optional memorial; Scotland: Feast) Read Saint John Ogilvie »

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Commentary on Romans 8:31-39; Psalm 123; Matthew 10:34-39

Division is the painful subject spoken of in the Gospel reading. Somewhat alarmingly, Jesus tells his disciples not to think that he has come to bring peace:

I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

And this division is not just between different groups of people; it will even happen within families:

For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law…

These seem strange words from the one we call the ‘Prince of Peace’, from the one who told his disciples at the Last Supper:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

Jesus’ words must be properly understood. He is the bringer of deep peace into our lives, but as he so often mentions and as so often happens, his most beautiful words and actions generate intense hatred and hostility in those who do not want to hear them. And the basis for division among families is made clear in what follows in the reading:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Life is a matter of choices. We can either go the Way of Jesus, the way of truth and life and love or we can go the way of self-seeking, putting ourselves at the centre at the expense of those around us. For the person committed to the Way of Jesus, there is really no choice.

Perpetua made that clear. Her father tried hard to make her compromise so that she could preserve her life, but as she told him:

I am a follower of Christ and nothing else.

She could not compromise even to please her father. The long line of martyrs in the Church have lived out this teaching again and again.

The words of Paul in the First Reading from the Letter to the Romans would also have resonated with Perpetua and Felicitas:

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

That was the basis for the courage of the martyrs, their inner strength, even their joy at facing their fate. As Paul continues in his letter:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

This was what helped the martyrs face with such boldness the wild animals thrown against them and the final stroke of execution. People who came to be ‘entertained’ were shaken to the core and made to wonder what could drive people to face such terrible deaths with such courage, not to say, joy?

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Perpetua and Felicitas (or Felicity) were two 3rd century Christian martyrs. Perpetua was a 22-year old mother with a son a few months old. Felicitas, her slave, was pregnant with child. They were from Carthage, a Roman Province in North Africa. It was originally a Phoenician city and the famous Hannibal, who brought elephants across the Alps to attack Rome, came from there. Few saints were more greatly honoured in the early Church. Their story is told in The Passion of St Perpetua, St Felicitas, and their Companions, regarded as one of the great treasures of martyr literature, a document which is said to preserve the actual words of the martyrs and their friends.

Saint Perpetua’s account is apparently historical, and is the earliest surviving text written by a Christian woman. With the lives of so many early martyrs shrouded in legend, it is fortuitous to have the record from the hand of Perpetua herself, her teacher Saturus, and others who knew them. Read in North African churches for the next several centuries, it was treated as almost equivalent to Scripture and was read during liturgies.

Perpetua and Felicitas were arrested and imprisoned, along with three other Christians in 203 AD. Their crime was defying the Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211), himself of Phoenician origin. He had been a Roman general whose bold military exploits led him to be proclaimed emperor by the army after the death of the immoral Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius. By Severus’ decree, all imperial subjects were forbidden under severe penalties to become Christians or Jews, although only recent converts were affected.

While the five (along with their instructor in faith) were being held awaiting execution, Perpetua’s father urged his favourite child to save her life and the life of her baby by renouncing her faith. She answered:

Father, do you see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be?…Can it be called by any other name than what it is?

He replied, “No”, and she said:

So also I cannot call myself by any other name than what I am—a Christian.

At a trial shortly afterwards, Perpetua refused to offer a sacrifice for the prosperity of the emperors. When the court asked “Are you a Christian?” she answered, “Yes, I am,” thereby condemning herself to death.

Felicitas, meanwhile, had been afraid she would not suffer with the rest, because Roman law forbade the execution of pregnant women (on the basis that the unborn child was innocent of any crime). However, in answer to her prayers, her child was born while she was in prison and promptly adopted by a Christian couple. Perpetua had managed to convert their jailer to Christianity, and so the captives were treated well in their final days.

The prisoners turned their last meal into an agape-love meal and spoke of the joy of their own sufferings thus astonishing most witnesses, and even converting some of them. When the day of the games arrived, Perpetua and Felicitas went to the amphitheatre “joyfully as though they were on their way to heaven”, as Perpetua sang a psalm of triumph. The guards attempted to force the captives to wear robes consecrated to Roman gods, but Perpetua resisted so fiercely that they were allowed to wear their own clothes.

A wild heifer was sent against the women. The heifer tossed Perpetua, who got up, straightened her hair, and helped Felicitas regain her feet. Absorbed in ecstasy, Perpetua was unaware that she had been thrown, and did not believe it until Felicitas showed her the marks on her body. Having survived the animals, the women were to be executed. They exchanged a final kiss of peace. A nervous gladiator tried to kill Perpetua, but failed to finish the job until she guided the knife to her throat. About this, the story of their martyrdom comments:

Perhaps so great a woman…could not else have been slain except she willed it.

Although the execution in the Coliseum was intended as entertainment, and enjoyed as such by most of the jeering crowd, some of the spectators, inspired by the martyrs’ fearlessness, became converts. And these spectators were not the last who would be encouraged by Perpetua and Felicitas, who, even at the cost of their lives, worshipped God and not the state.

The date of their martyrdom is traditionally given as 6 March, 203. The association of the martyrdom with a birthday festival of the Emperor Geta, however, would seem to place it after 209, when Geta was made emperor, but before 211, when he was assassinated. The bodies of the martyrs were interred at Carthage.

Felicitas and Perpetua (mentioned in that order) are two of seven women saints commemorated by name in the second part of the First Eucharistic Prayer. When St Thomas Aquinas was inserted into the Roman calendar, for celebration on the same day, the memorial for the two African saints was downgraded to a commemoration. This was the situation in the Tridentine Calendar established by Pope Pius V and remained so until 1908, when Pope Pius X brought the date for celebrating them forward to 6 March. In 1969, Pope Paul VI restored the date of their celebration to 7 March (while St Thomas Aquinas was moved to 28 January).

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Polycarp (born around 69 AD) was a second century bishop of Smyrna. Smyrna was a town on what is now the west coast of Turkey, and lay north of the important city of Ephesus. Not much seems to be known of his origins. His main claim to fame is that he lived just after the time of the Apostles and that he had been a disciple of John. This John may be identified with John the Apostle, John the Presbyter, or John the Evangelist. Together with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp is one of three chief Apostolic Fathers.

He was also a companion of Papias, who is also supposed to have had direct contact with John the Apostle, and was a correspondent of Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius addressed a letter to him, and mentions him in his letters to the Ephesians and to the Magnesians.

The most famous of Polycarp’s students was Irenaeus, for whom Polycarp was a direct link with the Apostles. Irenaeus tells how he heard the account of Polycarp’s discussion with John the Evangelist and with others who had personally seen Jesus. Irenaeus also reports that Polycarp was converted to Christianity by apostles, was consecrated a bishop and communicated with many who had seen Jesus. He repeatedly emphasizes the very great age of Polycarp. In The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Polycarp is quoted speaking about his age on the day of his death: “Eighty and six years I have served him.” If this is understood to mean that he was 86 years old, it would indicate his family had accepted Christianity while he was an infant.

Polycarp visited Rome during the time his fellow Syrian, Anicetus, was Bishop of Rome, sometime between 150 AD and his death.  His sole surviving work is his Letter to the Philippians, a collection of references to the Greek Scriptures. It, and an account of The Martyrdom of Polycarp that takes the form of a circular letter from the church of Smyrna to the churches of Pontus, form part of the collection of writings Catholics term The Apostolic Fathers in order to emphasize their particular closeness to the apostles in Church traditions. The Martyrdom is considered one of the earliest genuine accounts of a Christian martyrdom, and one of the very few genuine accounts from the actual age of the persecutions.

The date of Polycarp’s death is in dispute. Estimates vary from about 156 to 167 AD, depending on the source. Surviving accounts of the bravery of this very old man in the face of death by burning at the stake added credence to his words. He died when he was stabbed after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed.

Polycarp occupies an important place in the history of the Christian Church because he is among the earliest Christians whose writings survive, and because of his close contacts with Jesus’ disciples. He was also an elder of an important congregation in an area where the apostles had worked.

He appears, from surviving accounts, to have been a practical leader and gifted teacher rather than a scholar. He lived in an age soon after the deaths of the apostles when a variety of interpretations of the sayings of Jesus were being preached. His role was to authenticate orthodox teachings through his reputed connection with John the Apostle.

The chief sources of information concerning Polycarp are four: the authentic letters of Irenaeus, which include one to Polycarp; Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians; passages in Irenaeus’ Adversus Haeresis; and the letter of the Smyrnaeans recounting the martyrdom of Polycarp.

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This feast has been kept at Rome since the 4th century. It is celebrated as a symbol of the unity of the Church. The principal diocese of the Catholic Church is Rome, and the Pope is its bishop. His cathedral is not, as many may be inclined to think, St Peter’s Basilica, but the Church of St John Lateran.

The Bishop of Rome is not ranked above other bishops, but is rather primus inter pares, ‘first among equals’. The diocese of Rome has a special place because of its links with St Peter, on whom Jesus said he would build his church. Hence the unity of the Church is expressed by the solidarity of each diocese with the diocese of Rome, and with each other. And when the Pope speaks formally, it is the faith of the whole Church that he proclaims, and not just his own understanding of it.

From the earliest times, the Church at Rome celebrated on 18 January the memory of the day when Peter held his first service with the faithful of the Eternal City. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, commemorating his foundation of the See of Antioch, has also been long celebrated at Rome, on 22 February. At each place a chair (cathedra) was venerated which the Apostle had used while presiding at the Eucharist. The Roman Church, therefore, at an early date celebrated a first and a second assumption of the episcopal office in Rome by St Peter. This double celebration was also held in two places, in the Vatican Basilica and in a cemetery (coemeterium) on the Via Salaria.

The first of these chairs stood in the Vatican Basilica, in the baptismal chapel built by Pope Damasus. While therefore in the Vatican Basilica there stood a cathedra on which the pope sat amid the Roman clergy during the pontifical Mass, there was also in the same building a second cathedra from which the pope administered to the newly baptized the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Chair of St Peter in the apse was made of marble and was built into the wall, while that of the baptistry was movable and could be carried. Ennodius calls the latter a sedes gestatoria, a ‘chair for carrying’.

Throughout the Middle Ages it was always brought out on 22 February from the above mentioned consignatorium, or place of confirmation to the high altar. That day, the pope did not use the marble cathedra (at the back of the apse), but sat on this portable cathedra, which was, consequently, made of wood.*

The importance of this feast was heightened by the fact that 22 February was considered the anniversary of the day when Peter bore witness, by the Sea of Tiberias, to the divinity of Christ and was again appointed by Christ to be the Rock of His Church (see John 21:15).
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*The last pope to use this chair was Saint John XXIII.

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Claude la Colombière, third child of the notary Bertrand La Colombière and Margaret Coindat, was born on 2 February, 1641 at Saint-Symphorien-d’Ozon, in the Dauphine, southeastern France, between Lyons and Vienne. He entered the Jesuit order at Avignon in 1659.  His motives for this choice are not known, but he did confess later that he “had a terrible aversion for the life embraced”. This was not surprising for he was known to be very close to his family and friends and much inclined to the arts and literature and an active social life.

On the other hand, he was not a person to be led primarily by his feelings. In 1666, he went to the College of Clermont in Paris for his theological studies. Already noted for his tact, poise and dedication to the humanities, he was assigned the additional responsibility of tutoring the children of Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert. The year 1674, the year of his Tertianship (i.e. the final phase of his Jesuit training) was a decisive one for Claude. He took a vow to observe all the constitutions and rules of the Society of Jesus under pain of sin. This was not to focus on the observance of minutiae, but rather to live out the ideal of an apostle as laid down by St Ignatius, the Founder of the Society. It became his programme of holiness.

On 2 February, 1675 he made the solemn profession of his final vows and was immediately made rector of the Jesuit College at Paray-le-Monial. Some wondered at the assignment of such a promising talent to such an out of the way place. It seems it was because of the presence, in the local Visitation convent, of an unpretentious nun, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque. She had been the recipient of visions of Jesus’ Heart, but was plagued by anguish and uncertainty. She was waiting for the Lord to send her a “faithful servant and perfect friend” to help her carry out her mission—revealing to the world the unfathomable riches of Christ’s love.

Margaret Mary at once opened her inner experiences to Claude, and he assured her that he accepted them as being genuine. He told her to put them in writing and promised her every support in the mission she was being given. In Claude’s own written reflections, it is clear that even before becoming Margaret Mary’s confessor, Claude’s vowed faithfulness to the directives of St Ignatius Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, especially the “Contemplation for Obtaining Love”, had brought him to understand the Heart of Christ as symbol of his love.

Claude had only been a year and half in Paray, when in 1676 he was transferred to London. He had been appointed preacher to the Duchess of York, the Duke’s second wife, Mary of Modena, who was a Catholic and would later be queen. It was a difficult and delicate assignment in a predominantly Protestant England.

He took up residence in St James Palace. Even in the Court, Claude lived the life of a religious. In addition to preaching sermons, he gave constant spiritual direction and reconciled many lapsed Catholics back into their Church. It was dangerous but consoling work. And, in spite of difficulties, he was able to continue directing Margaret Mary by letter.

However, the heavy workload and the adverse climate brought on serious lung problems, and he planned to return to France. Then, without warning, at the end of 1678, he was accused of being involved in the Titus Oates plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, and spent three weeks jailed in difficult conditions. Thanks to his title of preacher to the Duchess of York and the protection of Louis XIV, whose subject he was, he escaped death, but was expelled from England in 1679.

This experience further weakened his health. The last two years of his life were spent at Lyons where he was spiritual director to young Jesuits, and at Paray-le-Monial, to which he returned in the summer of 1681. On 15 February, 1682, the first Sunday of Lent, Claude suffered the severe haemorrhage which ended his life. His principal works, including Pious Reflections, Meditations on the Passion, Retreat and Spiritual Letters, were published under the title, Oeuvres du R. P. Claude de la Colombière (Avignon, 1832; Paris, 1864).

His relics are preserved in the convent of the Visitation Sisters at Paray-le-Monial. Claude was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 16 June, 1929, and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 31 May, 1992.

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Commentary on Acts 13:46-49; Luke 10:1-9

The Gospel reading tells of Jesus sending out 72 disciples to prepare the way for his coming to various towns and villages he was going to visit. The harvest, he tells them, is abundant, but the labourers are few. That was true then, it was true in the time of Cyril and Methodius and it is true today. He further warns them that he is sending them out like lambs among wolves. Again, that was true then, was true in the time of Cyril and Methodius and is still true in our own time.

It is significant that the greatest opposition the brothers met was not from pagans or heretics, but from fellow Christians who had a restricted understanding of how the faith was to be communicated. The main source of opposition they met was on the basis of language. The opponents of Cyril and Methodius belived that only Latin could be the language of the Bible and of the liturgy. We can meet with similar kinds of prejudice in our own day when serious divisions can arise from identifying the essence of our Christian faith with what are really unessentials. Should our Mass be in the vernacular or in Latin? Should communion be received on the tongue or in the hand? Should we receive it standing or kneeling at altar rails? What kind of vestments should the priest wear? Is it of the essence of our faith that only males can preside at the Eucharist, or that they have to be celibate? There are so many of these sorts of questions.

Jesus further instructs his disciples to bring a message of peace wherever they go—but not peace at any price. It is not a true peace to compromise or stay silent on essentials of our faith. They are to move around with only the bare essentials for their needs, and to adapt themselves to the lifestyle of those with whom they stay. Again, Cyril and Methodius lived like this. Their life had begun with the austerity of monks, and Cyril would end his life back in a monastery.

The First Reading, too, reflects the situation of the two missionaries. It is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, and we find Paul and Barnabas in the town of Antioch, in the province of Pisidia, situated in what is southern Turkey today. It is a Sabbath day and practically the whole town has come out to listen to the two apostles.

But some of the Jews became jealous of their popularity and began verbally abusing Paul. As more and more Gentiles accepted the teaching of Paul, these same Jews incited the local women against him and had Paul and Barnabas expelled from the town.

This reflects the experience of Cyril and Methodius, who were constantly attacked by leaders of the German church who objected very strongly to the two brothers using the Slavonic language in their preaching and liturgy (and, as a result, were far more successful in their evangelising than the German missionaries had been). Like Paul, Methodius faced eviction and even imprisonment at the hands of fellow Christians.

The later history of the Church has had many similar experiences, with Christians becoming seriously divided from each other and using violence. It has resulted in tragic and long-lasting divisions. Jesus told his disciples that one of the ways by which his followers would be recognised would be their being united together in love. Let us pray today for greater unity both between our various denominations and within denominations so that the prayer of Jesus may be fulfilled:

…that they may all be one. (John 17:21)

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Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers from a noble family in Thessalonika, a district in north-eastern Greece. Methodius was born about 815 AD, and Cyril (known through most of his life as Constantine) the younger, was born about 827 AD. Though belonging to a senatorial family, they set aside all secular honours and became priests. They were living as monks in a monastery on the Bosphorous, when the Khazars sent a request to Constantinople asking for a Christian teacher. (At the height of their empire, the Khazars controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan and large portions of the Caucasus.)

Constantine was chosen, but his brother went with him. They learned the Khazar language and made many converts. Soon afterwards, there was also a request from the Moravians for a preacher of the Gospel (Moravia is today in the east of the Czech Republic). German missionaries had been working there, but because they did not know the local language, met with little success. The Moravians wanted someone who could teach them, and conduct their liturgy in the Slavonic language.

Because of their knowledge of the language, Constantine and Methodius were chosen. They went to Moravia in 863 AD and worked there for four and a half years. However, to do their work more effectively, Constantine devised an alphabet, based on the Greek alphabet, but with extra letters to accommodate sounds in the Slavonic language. With the help of his brother, he then translated the Gospels and the needed liturgical books into the Slavonic language which now could also be read using the new alphabet (the alphabet is called ‘Cyrillic’ after its creator).  

In spite of their success, they were not trusted by the German church. This happened, first, because they had come from Constantinople where the church was very divided by schism and, second, because they celebrated the liturgy in the Slavonic language rather than Latin. Because of this, they were called to Rome by Pope Nicholas I, who, however, died before their arrival. They were received kindly by his successor, Pope Adrian II. Having been convinced of their doctrinal orthodoxy, the pope approved of their missionary work, sanctioned the use of Slavonic in the liturgy and ordained Methodius and Constantine bishops. They had arrived in Rome in 868 AD where Constantine entered a monastery, taking the name Cyril, by which he is now remembered. However, he died only a few weeks later on 4 February, 869 and is buried in the Church of San Clemente (now taken care of by Irish Dominicans).

At the request of the Moravian princes and a Slav prince, the people established the Archdiocese of Moravia and Pannonia, and made it independent of the German church. Methodius was its first archbishop. But two years later in 870 AD, Methodius was called to a synod in Ratisbon. There, he was deposed and put in prison.

Three years later he was released on the orders of Pope John VIII and reinstated. However, he was again called to Rome on the allegations of a German priest, Wiching, who questioned his orthodoxy and his use of the Slavonic language instead of Latin. After an enquiry, the use of Slavonic was approved with the proviso that the Gospel had first to be read in Latin before being read in Slavonic. Wiching then became a suffragan bishop under Methodius, but continued to oppose him. One of the last things Methodius did was to go to Constantinople where, with the help of some priests, he completed the translation of the Bible, with the exception of the Books of Maccabees. Worn out by his labours and struggles, Methodius died on 6 April, 885.

Formerly the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius was celebrated in Bohemia and Moravia on 9 March, but Pope Pius IX changed the date to 5 July. Pope Leo XIII, by his Encyclical Grande Munus of 30 September, 1880, extended the feast to the universal Church. On 1 October, 1999, Saints Cyril and Methodius were named Patrons of Europe by Pope John Paul II together with Saints Benedict, Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).