Section 06: The Mission to the Slavs
Photius’s role in the great northward expansion of Byzantine Christianity. These files cover the Slavonic mission of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius, sent to Moravia under Photius’s patriarchate and the emperor Michael III, and the contest with Rome over Bulgaria — the jurisdictional dispute that lay at the root of the doctrinal rupture of 866–870.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox / Byzantine
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| Cyril and Methodius | The brothers from Thessalonica, the Khazar embassy and the Moravian mission (862–863), the Glagolitic alphabet and the Slavonic liturgy, and Photius’s connection to Constantine-Cyril — narrated soberly |
| Bulgaria and the Jurisdictional Dispute | Boris-Michael of Bulgaria between Constantinople and Rome; the conversion, the refused autonomy, the turn to Rome, the Latin missionaries and the Filioque — the root of the 866–870 conflict |
How to Use
- Read Cyril and Methodius for the constructive missionary achievement under Photius; read Bulgaria for the jurisdictional quarrel that turned the Photian controversy doctrinal.
- The doctrinal consequence of the Bulgarian dispute is in Section 03 (the Encyclical) and Section 02 (the 867 council).
Cross-References
- For the patristic and liturgical tradition the Slavonic mission carried north, see The Church Fathers
- For the Byzantine ecclesial world from which the missions went out, see The Byzantine Church
References
- See the collection README for the principal sources; each content file carries its own full reference list.