SLAVONIC LANGUAGE AND LITURGY 



ALTHOUGH the Latin holds the chief place among the 

 liturgical languages in which the Mass is celebrated 

 and the praise of God recited in the Divine Offices, 

 yet the Slavonic language conies next to it among the 

 languages widely used throughout the world in the liturgy of 

 the Church. Unlike the Greek or the Latin languages, each of 

 which may be said to be representative of a single rite, it is 

 dedicated to both the Greek and the Roman Rites. Its use, 

 however, is far better known throughout Europe as an expres- 

 sion of the Greek Rite ; for it is used amongst the various 

 Slavic nationalities of the Byzantine Rite, whether Catholic 

 or Orthodox, and in that form is spread among 115,000,000 

 people ; but it is also used in the Roman Rite along the eastern 

 shores of the Adriatic Sea in Dalmatia and in the lower part 

 of Croatia among about 100,000 Catholics there. Whilst the 

 Greek language is the norm and the original of the Byzantine 

 or Greek Rite, its actual use as a church language is limited 

 to a comparatively small number, reckoning by population. 

 The liturgy and offices of the Byzantine Church were trans- 

 lated from the Greek into what is now Old Slavonic (or 

 Church Slavonic) by Sts. Cyril and Methodius about the year 

 866 and the period immediately following. St, Cyril is cred- 

 ited with having invented or adapted a special alphabet which 

 now bears his name (Cyrillic) in order to express the sounds 

 of the Slavonic language, as spoken by the Bulgars and Mo- 

 ravians of his day. 



Later on St. Methodius translated the entire Bible into Sla- 

 vonic and his disciples afterwards added other works of the 

 Greek saints and the canon law. These two brother saints 

 always celebrated Mass and administered the sacraments in the 

 Slavonic language. News of their successful missionary work 

 among the pagan Slavs was carried to Rome along with com- 

 plaints against them for celebrating the rites of the Church in 



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