One of the biggest changes (and leaving in its wake many grudges held by old-line conservatives that have lasted almost sixty years and counting) to come about in the sweeping reforms that occurred in the Roman Catholic Church by means of the Second Vatican Council (held from 1962 to 1965) was the decision that Mass should not be conducted in the Latin language. Latin was, of course, no longer a living language, and was known by very very few Catholics (and not known well by more than a few priests). Rather, this Council (generally known as Vatican II) emphasized that Mass should be celebrated in the language(s) of the people who actually gather to worship.

Traditionalists preferred to keep Mass in Latin, because that is what they grew up with, that is what they were used to, that’s what they were taught, that’s what they were most comfortable with, and that’s what they expected other people should do. What is more, there is something (1) mystical about worship in an ancient language, and (2) people who don’t know the meaning of what is being said are less likely to question what they hear.

The one thing that the most recent pope but one–Benedict XVI–did was to green-light the return of Mass celebrated in Latin for those congregations (read: primarily older priests and/or bishops) who so preferred. (Note: It’s not as if Jesus spoke Latin–he spoke Aramaic; it’s not as if the biblical texts were originally in Latin–they were in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek; it’s not as if the early Church even celebrated Mass in Latin–certainly not pre-Constantine in 315, and not generally for a long time thereafter.)

Times weren’t always like this. In the days before Christianity covered the world, and there were new mission fields, Christians were eager to find ways to hold Christian worship in the language of those they encountered in new or strange lands. After all, what good is there in blessing anyone “”In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti” if the people being blessed have zero idea what you even mean?!

Today’s saints–Cyril and Methodius–were exceptional missionaries. Their work took place in the 800s, particularly when they began spreading the Gospel in the area around Thessalonica, an area in present-day Greece that was at that time inhabited by Slavic people. Not only were these a people who did not know Latin (or Greek), but who did not even have a written language. Apparently, none of the Slavic world at that time possessed any standardized written language.

So what did these two saints do? They created an alphabet! (The Cyrillic alphabet, ya know?) They formed letters to represent the sounds and words of the local people, basing it somewhat on the Greek that Cyril and Methodius knew, and they translated worship materials (scriptural texts and liturgical texts) into what only later came to be called “Old Church Slavonic.” Of course, at the time, there was nothing old about it. This literary language–Old Church Slavonic–became the prototype of just about all the written Slavic languages that developed thereafter, and the alphabet crafted by our saints continues in use (in modified forms) throughout much of Russia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.

To accomplish this feat took our saints time. They needed time to meet people, to build trust, to inspire hope, to learn the language(s) extraordinarily well, to draft and write and rewrite, and to share. Though much can be laid at the feet of those who sought to impose culture on others and pave the way for colonization by means of “mission work,” here we have two who risked their lives and invested their time to open pathways of communication that continue to impact lives.