Within a couple of years, Prince Rastislav of Moravia asked Emperor Michael III to send missionaries to Great Moravia, today’s Czech Republic. His people had rejected paganism and embraced Christianity, but they didn’t have anyone who could explain the faith to them in their native Slavic language. In Great Moravia, Constantine and Methodius began to translate the Bible and liturgical books into the Slavic language. Since there was no written form of the language or even an alphabet, Constantine created one. He translated the various sounds into symbols, enabling the two brothers to write down the sacred texts. They taught the people and future Slavic clerics how to read their new written language. The new alphabet developed into today’s Cyrillic alphabet, the basis of many Eastern European and Asian languages used by more than 250 million people today. In the face of German criticism of teaching the Slavs in their native language, Constantine and Methodius traveled to Rome. Pope Adrian II ordained them bishops and sent them back to Great Moravia. Before leaving Rome, however, Constantine fell sick. Before dying, he fully consecrated himself to God as a monk in one of the Greek monasteries, taking the monastic name Cyril. His brother Methodius then returned to Great Moravia to continue his work. Bishop Methodius spent the next fourteen years evangelizing the people in their native language, forming clergy, and effectively administering the Church. He continued to endure harsh treatment from the Germanic clergy, even being imprisoned by them for a time, but he pressed on, extending his missionary work beyond the borders of Great Moravia. A millennia later, the brothers received the universal honor they deserved when the Western Church added them to its liturgical calendar. A century after that, Pope John Paul II, a Slav himself, honored Cyril and Methodius with the title of co-patrons of Europe and Apostles to the Slavs.