There are days that are more than just dates on a calendar for me. They are days when it feels like time stands still, and the nation looks into the mirror of its own history. For me, that day is July 5th, thankfully still a national holiday celebrating Saints Cyril and Methodius. We are not just commemorating and celebrating the arrival of Orthodox priests in Great Moravia in 863. We are celebrating a turning point, a moment of birth, the idea that a nation has the right to speak its own language, to be educated in its own language, and to develop its culture without feeling inferior.
When Prince Rastislav asked the Byzantine emperor for teachers who could bring the faith to the people in an understandable language, a completely new chapter in our history opened, which began to shape us. Constantine, later known as Cyril, and his brother Methodius, did not come as conquerors of our land. They did not come with a sword or with power. They came with a book, with wisdom, with education, and with good words. I consider this to be one of the greatest civilizational moments in our history. Cyril created the Glagolitic alphabet, the first Slavic script. Together with Methodius, he translated religious texts into Old Church Slavonic, the first written language of the Slavs. It was not just a language. It was literally a liberation of the spirit. It was a recognition that Slavic nations also have the right to be bearers of education and culture. At a time when only Latin, Greek, and Hebrew were considered sacred, our ancestors heard their own language. And with it came dignity.
I believe that this is where the true strength of a nation is born. Not in wealth, not in the number of soldiers, but in spiritual culture, education, and a sense of one's own identity. A nation that loses or forgets its roots is like a tree uprooted from the ground. It may stand for a while, but it gradually withers. Cyril died in Rome in 869, and Methodius continued his work until his death in 885. However, their work did not disappear. It spread to other Slavic nations and became the foundation of their cultural development. Therefore, they are not just the patrons of one country. Cyril and Methodius have become an eternal symbol of the entire Slavic civilization.
Today, we live in a time that often teaches us to divide rather than unite. Every day we hear more about conflicts than about understanding, more about hatred than about respect. That is why I feel, deep down, that the legacy of Cyril and Methodius is exceptionally relevant. Cyril and Methodius did not bring an ideology of division, but a teaching of unity and harmony. They brought a path of dialogue, education, and mutual respect and recognition. I believe that Slavic nations do not have to be the same to be close. They do not have to have identical opinions to be able to respect each other. What the Slavic nations have in common is their culture, their linguistic kinship, and their thousand-year-old spiritual roots. This is not a call to deny differences, but to seek what unites us more than what divides us.
For me, Cyril and Methodius have always been a kind of inner light, a light that has not faded even after more than eleven centuries, but on the contrary, becomes immortal. They remind me that our nation's true strength stems primarily from truth, education, humility, and respect for our own history. Without the past, there is no future. Without a language, there is no nation. Without culture, there is no freedom of the spirit. Therefore, I consider it my duty not only to commemorate this holiday, to pass on its meaning to future generations, but also to truly celebrate it, because it is a liberation for us. The Czech nation must not forget where it came from. On the contrary, it is obliged to preserve its historical memory, its language, and its cultural heritage. And it must never lose faith that education, humanity, and spiritual strength are the values that can endure all periods of history.
In my opinion, this is the true legacy of Saints Cyril and Methodius – a legacy that does not belong to the past, but still belongs to our present and our future.
Jan Vojtěch, Editor-in-Chief of General News