Rastislav
Prince of the Moravians who asked the emperor at Constantinople for a teacher able to instruct his people in their own language, and received Constantine and Methodius.
The Life of Constantine says that Rastislav took counsel with his nobles and sent to Michael III for a bishop and teacher, since his people had left paganism but had no one to explain the faith in their own tongue, and that he received Constantine with honour and gave him pupils (Life of Constantine 14–15). The Life of Methodius names him together with Svatopluk as sender of the embassy, and gives him first place among the princes to whom Pope Hadrian II’s letter on the Slavonic liturgy is addressed (Life of Methodius 5; 8). Neither Life tells how his reign ended. See Cyril and Methodius among the Slavs.
In the timeline
- AD 863 to AD 885, estimated dateCyril and Methodius among the Slavs
Two brothers from Thessalonica, sent from Constantinople to Moravia, give the Slavs an alphabet, the Scriptures and the liturgy in their own language. Rome’s attitude to the Slavonic liturgy shifts from approval to prohibition and back, and ends in a ban.