Page "Saints Cyril and Methodius" Paragraph 5

The second mission ( 860 ), requested by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius ( a professor of Cyril's at the University and his guiding light in earlier years ), was a missionary expedition to the Khazar Khaganate in order to prevent the expansion of Judaism there.

This mission was unsuccessful, as later the Khagan imposed Judaism on his people as the national religion.

It has been claimed that Methodius accompanied Cyril on the mission to the Khazars, but this is probably a later invention.

The account of his life presented in the Latin " Legenda " claims that he learned the Khazar language while in Chersonesos, in Taurica ( today Crimea ).