May 11 Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs
Cyril (826-869) and Methodius (ca. 815-885) were brothers who came from a Greek family in Thessalonica. The younger brother took the name "Cyril" when he became a monk in 868. After ordination, Cyril became librarian at the church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Constantinople. In 862 the brothers were sent by the emperor as missionaries to what is now the Czech republic, where they taught in the native Slavic tongue. Cyril invented the alphabet today know today as "Cyrillic," which provided a written language for the liturgy and Scriptures for the Slavic peoples. This use of the vernacular established an important principle for evangelical missions. [From "Commemorations Biographies," Lutheran Service Book, LCMS Commission on Worship] 330 Roman emperor Constantine, the first Christian emperor, inaugurated Constantinople as his capital on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium and dedicated it as a Christian city.
341 Eleven years after it dedication, Constantinople was officially made the capital of the Roman empire, a dramatic switch from Rome.