Saints Cyril and Methodius Day 2026

What is Saints Cyril and Methodius Day?

Saints Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessaloniki, in the Byzantine empire, who became missionaries to the Slavs in the ninth century. They created the Glagolitic alphabet, the oldest known Slavic script, and translated the liturgy and parts of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic, an achievement that laid the foundation of Slavic literature and the Cyrillic script that was later developed by their disciples. They are venerated in both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches. Their work gave the Slavic peoples a written language of their own for the first time, and the script's later forms are still used today in a large part of the world.

In 863 they went to Great Moravia, a state covering parts of the present Czech Republic and Slovakia, at the request of its ruler, Rastislav. The brothers are honoured as the apostles of the Slavs, and Pope John Paul II named them co-patrons of Europe in 1980. The day is a public holiday in Czechia and Slovakia, a day of celebration of Slavic culture and language in North Macedonia, and a day of cultural events in Bulgaria on 24 May. Many towns hold festivals with folk music, pilgrimages and church services, particularly in Velehrad, in Moravia, which is the main place of the brothers' memory.

Why it is observed

The date of 5 July was set for the whole Catholic Church by Pope Leo XIII in his 1880 encyclical Grande munus, and it has been kept in Czech and Slovak lands ever since, even though the Catholic calendar moved the saints' memorial in 1969 to 14 February, the day Cyril died in Rome in 869. Methodius died in 885. In North Macedonia, 24 May commemorates the work of the brothers and their disciples in education and culture. The date reflects a nineteenth-century revival of devotion to the two saints among Slavs.

How the date is set

The day is fixed, but the date differs by country. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia it is 5 July, and in North Macedonia it is 24 May. In the Catholic Church the liturgical memorial of the two saints is 14 February.

How it is observed

The holiday is a public holiday in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 5 July, which means closed banks, offices and many shops, and it falls near the summer travel period. In North Macedonia, 24 May is a public holiday celebrating the Slavic alphabet and the work of the brothers. In the Czech Republic the holiday is followed the next day, 6 July, by Jan Hus Day, so the two form a short run of days off. Pay and time off depend on national law and the contract. Check dates for the specific country.