Dear fellow citizens,
Few people in history have had the honor of being perceived by many nations and states as apostles and protectors of Europe!
Such are the Thessaloniki brothers, the creators of the Glagolitic script, the proclaimers of God’s truth in the Old Slavic language, the founders of All-Slavic history, the teachers and enlighteners of the Slavic peoples.
Their blessed and noble work still has a unifying power and is considered a common historical and civilizational heritage.
How grateful we should be to them for the still living and respected word, without which neither those before us, nor we, would have been able to understand the liturgical books, nor to read, learn, write and create, that is, to enlighten ourselves.
Cyril and Methodius built and embedded themselves in the foundation of the spiritual and cultural identity of the Slavic peoples, including the Macedonian.
Only literate people could become self-aware and free themselves, first from ignorance, and then from subjugation of any kind.
Let me remind you that in the ninth century, when literacy was a privilege, and the word a tool of spiritual and political domination, Ss. Cyril and Methodius began their enlightening mission among the Slavic peoples as apostles of literacy, knowledge and spiritual emancipation.
Their feat does not consist only in the creation of the alphabet, but in opening the opportunity for the Slavic person to articulate his own thought, faith and cultural self-awareness in the language that he understands and feels as close and his own, fighting for it and defending it.
Language is not just a collection of words, but also a collective memory, a code of values and a sense of belonging transmitted through time, from generation to generation.
In a time of uncertainty, deep divisions and increasingly pronounced alienation, May 24 reminds us that without culture, education and science, but also without a value system, no society can build mutual trust and unity.
Congratulations on May 24, the Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius!
