The Miraculous signs of the first Slavonic Alphabet could speak
For Macedonians, one of the most important events that greatly changed and influenced the course of history in Macedonia was the initial encounter and the subsequent symbiosis between the last descendants of the ancient Macedonians and the Slav people who had gradually been populating and colonising the ethnic territory of ancient Macedonia. Certainly, the Slav tribes coming to Macedonia did not find a desolate wasteland, but one whose people had a unique history and a tradition of civilisation and glory. "Built on the foundations of the Byzantine culture, the Slavonic one was deeply permeated with Christianity. It is well known that Christianity had been the psychological and ideological basis of the entire social and political life of Byzantium.... The Slavs of Macedonia were the first Slav tribes to come to a land suffused with an ancient Christian cultural inheritance.... Our ancestors here gradually absorbed the benefits of the Christianised ancient culture. Living among Christians, they could not stay away from the new religion, even though they had not abandoned the old one."
Speaking of Cyril and Methodius, the scholar Petar Ilievski says, "The enlightening mission of the Thessalonian brothers is one of the major events in the history of the Slav people.... It is well known that the Slavonic mission of the brothers quickly yielded several important results. First, the belief in one God, the merciful father of all people, relieved our ancestors of the fear of many revengeful deities. Second, after the early, preliminary stages of the mission, the following things were accomplished: a new alphabet, a new liturgical language and a translation of a collection of the most important religious books."
And now that we are here, let us quote an effective metaphorical description of the Slavonic alphabet: "The ingenious invention of Constantine, or Cyril, the first Slavonic alphabet, was called Glagolitic because its miraculous signs could speak (Old Slav. ‘glagolati’ – to speak). Comprising sacred Christian symbols, that alphabet was intended for visual gospel preaching."
No Macedonian can be indifferent to the fact that the language of their ancestors from Suha and Visoka, in Thessalonica, has grown into the literary and liturgical language of all the Slavs! The Macedonian cannot be indifferent to the fact that the words of his ancestors' language have been consecrated, turned into bread and wine, into Christ's flesh and blood! The Macedonian is proud to express himself in the language in which Saint Cyril sang a hymn to his spiritual idol, Saint Gregory the Theologian, "a classical masterpiece, written in Byzantine hexametre. It is an example of high poetic mastery in a Slavonic language." It was the language in which Saint Cyril wrote his inspired Proclamation of the Holy Gospel, which R. Jacobson says is characterised by "monumental composition, precise and subtle rhythm, versatility and harmony of syntactic figures."
CHRONOLOGICALLY THE FOURTH LITERARY LANGUAGE IN EUROPE - THE FIRST NEW LANGUAGE OF THE ERA INTRODUCED INTO EUROPEAN SPIRITUAL LIFE
Prominent Bulgarian historian and Slavicist, Dr. Vladimir Topencharov, in his outstanding study Cyril the Philosopher - ABC of the Renaissance, points to the fact that mediaeval church dogma limited literature and progress to a trilingual circle. Actually, it was a principle imposed by Rome and Byzantium through their dogmatic authorisation of only three world languages: Greek, Latin and Hebrew. The argument in favour of that dogma was that "those were the three languages in which Pilate ordered the Lord's cross to be inscribed." According to Topencharov, Old Latin and Greek at first served as a bridge between the ancient world and the Middle Ages, but later became an obstacle to progress. "In such a social climate," Dr. Topencharov notes, "Cyril's initiative in 863 to start preaching in a fourth language, Slavonic, represents an intellectual and political turn of events in Europe. It is not an exaggeration to say that Cyril and Methodius's achievement was the first defiance of continental scope against the trilingual dogma.
The inference is clear: chronologically the fourth literary language in Europe, the language used by Cyril and Methodius was the first new language of the era introduced into European spiritual life.... In its form and its historical direction, the blow delivered to the trilingual dogma by Cyril and Methodius foreshadowed the successive struggles of John Ball, Thomas Munzer, Martin Luther, Jan Hus, and the humanists."
Although still considered "holy languages," Latin and Greek were "dead and abstract" at that time and had performed their civilising and progressive role in antiquity; "in the Middle Ages they still played a significant part in university education. However, these languages were not known to the newly formed European nations and did not meet their social needs. They were more of a religious mystery than a social instrument. "
The Macedonian cannot be indifferent to and cannot help being proud of the fact that "the language of his ancestors was unique in its humanist content in 9th century Europe," that the language of his ancestors was introduced as a living language, the language of a new literature. The Macedonian cannot help being proud of this fact, knowing that the Scriptures that had been translated into Old French at the turn of the 12th century were publicly burned in the name of trilingual obscurantism at the order of Pope Innocent III; that Wycliffe translated the Bible into English in the 14th century, that Jan Hus preached in spoken Czech and Martin Luther translated the Bible into German at the beginning of the 15th century! How many centuries earlier had the holy books been translated into Old Slavonic, based on the language of the Macedonian Slavs in the region of Thessalonica? "This wonderful cultural heritage, their common language, encouraged the Slavs to seek their national confirmation," says Petar Ilievski and adds, "The work of the Thessalonian brothers was intended to be Pan-Slavonic from the very beginning. This is apparent in The Prologue to the Holy Scripture in which Constantine promoted the four gospels in Slavonic and announced the Slav educational mission program. He addresses all the Slavs:
Listen now, all Slav peoples,
listen to the words coming from God,
which feed human souls,
words that heal our hearts and minds....
The Macedonian cannot be indifferent before the fact that Christianity in Macedonia grew into an official public religion in the time of King Samoil's Empire, and the Ohrid Archbishopric into the Ohrid Patriarchate! In other words, he cannot be indifferent to the fact that "the historian has put the name of Ohrid next to those of Rome and Byzantium," calling them "the three capitals of culture."
From Orpheus & Jesus – An Overview of Biblical Motifs in Contemporary Poetry selected by Ante Popovski (published by Struga Poetry Evenings 2000)
http://www.macedonia.co.uk/mcic/aboutmacedonia/language/alphabet.asp