And although they were of Byzantine culture, the brothers Cyril and Methodius managed in the true sense of the word to become the apostles of the Slavs. The separation from their homeland, which God sometimes requires of chosen people, always means, if we accept it in the light of faith and its promise, a mysterious and fruitful prerequisite for the development and growth of God's people on earth. The Lord said to Abraham: "Leave your country, your relatives and your father's house and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great; and you will be a blessing!" (Gen 12:1).
During a night vision that Saint Paul had in Troas in Asia Minor, a Macedonian appeared to him, a resident of the European continent, and very earnestly begged him to come to his country and proclaim the word of God there: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (Acts 16:9).
Divine Providence, represented for both holy brothers by the voice and authority of the Byzantine Emperor and the Patriarch of the Constantinople Church, turned to them with a similar call when it asked them to go on a mission to the Slavs. Such a mission meant not only abandoning their honorable positions but also renouncing a contemplative life; it meant leaving the sphere of the Byzantine Empire and undertaking a long journey in the service of the Gospel among nations that were, in many respects, far removed from a civilization based on developed state organization and the refined culture of Byzantium, completely permeated with Christian principles…
(John Paul II, encyclical Slavorum apostoli, III. chapter, June 2, 1985)
