10 Eur 2018 - Recognition of the Slavonic liturgical language -> Proof

The arrival of the Thessalonian brothers Constantine (later Cyril) and Methodius to Great Moravia in 863 is among the most significant events in Slovak history. The two missionaries understood that a nation's stature was determined by its culture and education. Hence in their missionary activity they taught and wrote in the vernacular Slavonic and translated the scriptures and liturgy into the language. In 867, at the invitation of Pope Nicholas I, they went to Rome to seek the establishment of an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia. En route they stopped at Venice, where Constantine defended the Slavonic liturgy before high-ranking clergy who insisted that only Latin, Greek and Hebrew could be liturgical languages. After arriving in Rome the two brothers were received by Pope Nicholas's successor, Pope Adrian II, who in February or March 868 approved their Slavonic versions of the liturgy and scripture and ordained Methodius and several of his and Constantine’s seminarians as priests and deacons. The pope's approval of the Slavonic liturgy and scripture represented the ultimate recognition that the brothers' work could have received in the then Christian Europe.