Page "Saints Cyril and Methodius" Paragraph 30

The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, based primarily on the Greek uncial writing of the 9th century, are the oldest known Slavic alphabets and were created by the two brothers and their students, in order to translate the Bible and other texts into the Slavic languages.

The early Glagolitic alphabet was then used in Great Moravia between 863 ( with the arrival of Cyril and Methodius ) and 885 ( with the expulsion of their students ) for government and religious documents and books, and at the Great Moravian Academy ( Veľkomoravské učilište ) founded by Cyril, where followers of Cyril and Methodius were educated, by Methodius himself among others.

The alphabet has been traditionally attributed to Cyril.

That fact has been confirmed explicitly by the papal letter Industriae tuae ( 880 ) approving the use of Old Church Slavonic, which says that the alphabet was " invented by Constantine the Philosopher ".

The term invention need not exclude the possibility of the brothers having made use of earlier letters, but implies only that before that time the Slavic languages had no distinct script of their own.