A Mission from the Emperor

Our story begins in the 9th century, in the principality of Great Moravia, a land covering what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Its ruler, Prince Rastislav, was in a precarious position. Wedged between the powerful East Francia (a Germanic kingdom) and the Bulgarian Empire, he was struggling to maintain cultural and political independence. Frankish missionaries were spreading Christianity using Latin, a language the common people couldn’t understand, which kept Moravia tied to Germanic ecclesiastical control.

In a brilliant geopolitical move, Rastislav looked south. In 862 AD, he sent an embassy to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III with a crucial request: send teachers who could instruct his people in the Christian faith in their own Slavic tongue. This would not only make the religion more accessible but would also create a distinct Slavic liturgy, weakening the Frankish grip.

The emperor chose two of his most brilliant subjects for the task: the brothers Constantine and Methodius, natives of Thessaloniki. Constantine, a gifted linguist and scholar who would later be known by his monastic name Cyril, knew this mission required more than just translation. The Slavic language had sounds—like zh (ж), sh (ш), and ch (ч)—that simply couldn’t be written with the Greek or Latin alphabets. To truly give the Slavs a literary language, he had to first give them an alphabet.

The Birth of a Holy Script

Before even setting out for Moravia, Cyril undertook his monumental task. The result, created around 863 AD, was the Glagolitic alphabet (from the Old Church Slavonic word glagolati, meaning “to speak”). This was not a simple adaptation of an existing script; it was a complex and original creation, a system designed from the ground up for the specific sounds of the Slavic language.

The design of Glagolitic is what sets it apart and gives it its mysterious, almost alien beauty. Unlike the later Cyrillic, which is clearly based on Greek capital letters, the origins of Glagolitic’s ornate, looping characters are a subject of scholarly debate. Cyril, a master of theology as well as linguistics, seems to have infused the script with deep Christian symbolism. The designs for many letters appear to be built upon three core sacred elements:

• The Cross (✝): The symbol of Christ’s sacrifice.
• The Circle (◯): The symbol of God’s perfection and eternity.
• The Triangle (△): The symbol of the Holy Trinity.

Look at the first letter, Ⰰ (Az), which represents the “a” sound. It looks like a cross. The letter for “God”, Ⰱ (Buky), is dominated by a loop and a triangle. Each character is a miniature work of art, a vessel for both sound and faith. It was a script intended not just for administrative records, but for the sacred word of God.

Glagolitic vs. Cyrillic: The Battle of the Alphabets

Armed with their new alphabet, Cyril and Methodius traveled to Great Moravia and began their work. They translated the Gospels and key liturgical texts into the language now known as Old Church Slavonic, written in Glagolitic. Their mission was a resounding success with the people, but it infuriated the Frankish clergy, who saw it as a direct threat. They accused the brothers of the “trilingual heresy”—the belief that God could only be praised in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Despite receiving papal approval for their work, political winds shifted. After the deaths of both brothers, their disciples were arrested, sold into slavery, or expelled from Moravia. The Glagolitic experiment there was over.

But the story doesn’t end there. The exiled disciples found refuge in the First Bulgarian Empire under the rule of Tsar Boris I and later his son, Tsar Simeon the Great. Bulgaria was poised to become the new center of Slavic culture and learning. It was here, likely at the Preslav Literary School, that a crucial development occurred. Scholars, finding the intricate Glagolitic script difficult and slow to write, developed a simpler alternative.

This new script was based directly on the familiar and stately Greek uncial alphabet, with around a dozen letters borrowed or adapted from Glagolitic to represent the unique Slavic sounds. In honor of the man who started it all, they named this new, pragmatic script Cyrillic.

Backed by the immense political and cultural power of the Bulgarian Empire, Cyrillic was an instant success. It was easier to learn, faster to write, and visually aligned with the prestigious Byzantine Greek script. The battle of the alphabets had begun, and Glagolitic, the ornate original, was fighting a losing war against its simpler, state-sponsored successor.

The Long Fade and a Croatian Stronghold

As Cyrillic spread like wildfire across the Slavic world—to Serbia, Kievan Rus’ (the precursor to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), and beyond—Glagolitic began its long retreat into obscurity. It was systematically replaced, its manuscripts often scraped clean and rewritten in the new script.

Yet, in one corner of the Slavic world, Glagolitic held on with incredible tenacity: Croatia. Along the Dalmatian coast and its islands, Croatian Catholics adopted Glagolitic for their liturgy. It became a powerful symbol of their unique identity, distinct from both the Latin-using West and the Cyrillic-using Orthodox East. Remarkably, they even received special permission from the Pope in Rome to continue using the Slavic language and Glagolitic script in their church services.

Here, the script evolved from its original rounded form into a distinct “square” or “angular” Croatian Glagolitic. It was used to write everything from religious texts to legal documents, most famously the Baška tablet, a stone inscription from c. 1100 AD that is one of the oldest surviving records of the Croatian language. For centuries, Glagolitic thrived in this Croatian enclave, a living relic of a bygone era. But eventually, even here, the practicalities of the dominant Latin alphabet led to its decline, and by the 19th century, it had faded from common use.

A Legacy in Code

Today, Glagolitic is little more than a historical curiosity, studied by linguists and admired for its calligraphic beauty. But its importance cannot be overstated. It was the revolutionary first step, the proof that the Slavic peoples were a distinct civilization worthy of their own literary tradition. It broke the “trilingual” dogma and paved the way for the flourishing of Slavic literature.

While Cyrillic may bear Saint Cyril’s name, it is the beautiful, complex, and deeply spiritual Glagolitic that was his true, original masterpiece—the lost alphabet of the saints, a testament to a time when writing was not just communication, but an act of faith.