Feb 14th - Cyril and Methodius

Yes, I know, but we do not mention Valentine in the Eucharistic Prayer I Canon. The date of the brother's feast has been celebrated on March 9th, July 5th, and settled finally on today (believed to be the date of Cyril's death in Rome). There is quite a fuss within secular history about their role and effect among the Slavs, but we focus on their spiritual effect. By knowing their audience and adapting to the language they were able to succeed where others failed. They fought impunity and hatred and shepherded their people in a way which is not forgotten.
Though we celebrate them together today, they were like many brothers in that they each followed different spiritual paths yet also like many brothers supported and enabled each other with a love that only close siblings have. If the Home Church is where things start then theirs was a home to emulate. May our families produce the foundation and the support necessary to create saints!

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Methodius, Bishop, to those who say: What does it profit us that the Son of God was crucified upon earth, and made man? And wherefore did He endure to suffer in the manner of the cross, and not by some other punishment? And what was the advantage of the cross? ...Since, therefore, the first-born Word of God thus fortified the manhood in which He tabernacled with the armor of righteousness, He overcame, as has been said, the powers that enslaved us, by the figure of the cross, and showed forth man, who had been oppressed by corruption, as by a tyrant power, to be free, with unfettered hands. For the cross, if you wish to define it, is the confirmation of the victory, the way by which God to man descended, the trophy against material spirits, the repulsion of death, the foundation of the ascent to the true day; and the ladder for those who are hastening to enjoy the light that is there, the engine by which those who are fitted for the edifice of the Church are raised up from below, like a stone four square, to be compacted on to the divine Word. Hence it is that our kings, perceiving that the figure of the cross is used for the dissipating of every evil, have made vexillas, as they are called in the Latin language. Hence the sea, yielding to this figure, makes itself navigable to men. For every creature, so to speak, has, for the sake of liberty, been marked with this sign; for the birds which fly aloft, form the figure of the cross by the expansion of their wings; and man himself, also, with his hands outstretched, represents the same. Hence, when the Lord had fashioned him in this form, in which He had from the beginning flamed him, He joined on his body to the Deity, in order that it might be henceforth an instrument consecrated to God, freed from all discord and want of harmony. For man cannot, after that he has been formed for the worship of God, and has sung, as it were, the incorruptible song of truth, and by this has been made capable of holding the Deity, being fitted to the lyre of life as the chords and strings, he cannot, I say, return to discord and corruption.

-- Methodius, Fragment from the Homily on the Cross and Passion of Christ